Welcome to the CRAZY Side!
by Girly 411
Summary: Our newest first years at Hogwarts learn more about secrets from their past; magic goes deeper than they originally thought. Insignificances happen to be the biggest part of Voldemort’s plan to claim power. T to be safe. Full summary inside. R&R!
1. Platform 9 34 and the Hogwarts Express

**Welcome to the CRAZY Side!**

**Summary:**It's a new year at Hogwarts, a first for our newest first years. Along the way, they'll learn more about secrets from their past where magic goes deeper than they originally thought. Betrayal and secrets thought to be insignificant happen to have the biggest part of Voldemort's newest plan to claim power.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own most of what you see here. I own pretty much only one of the OCs and the other ones belong to several of my friends and role-playing partners. The characters you do recognize belong to, well… obviously not me. So, now that we're on the same page, I own what I own, including most of the plot. The rest of the plot belongs to the amazing people who stuck with the rp I created and based this story on.

**Credits:**

Cloe belongs to me,

Laerwen aka: MP belongs to none other than MP aka: Luthien Saralonde,

Genevieve belongs to Squeaky aka: Dancing Dork,

Mason belongs to Jude (I have no idea what his penname is anymore, since he changes it so much),

Sharpay/Ashley kind of sort of belongs to me and Beth (Bethany-something).

Credit for Ryan/Ethan and Dumbledore goes to me,

Credit for the elves from Middle Earth and partially Dumbledore goes to MP,

Credit for Sharpay goes to Charlene (Charmingly Char – or something like that),

Credit for Nessie and Edward goes to Vampp aka: TheBadassRoza.

**Chapter 1: Platform 9 ¾ and the Hogwarts Express**

A calm breeze pushed the cotton candy clouds through the early morning air, creating a trail of mist across the sky. The excitement could almost be felt beaming down on everyone below like the rays of sun that sneaked past the oncoming clouds rolling its way. Just moments before, King's Cross Station had been flooded with many excited students waiting to board the Hogwarts Express. Now, it lay empty on the outside to any unsuspecting visitor.

A large light brown bear-sized wolf sped across the ground as fast as her legs could carry her, her green eyes full of fear, desperate to make it on time. She kept on running, knowing full well she couldn't go back. Not there; not where she'd come from. They would never accept her if they knew the truth. She couldn't let them know and now that she'd run away, she could never go back there again. As the train station came into sight, she darted full speed ahead, her four furry paws hitting the solid cement ground like boulders. She briefly glanced over her shoulder just to check. Good. They aren't following her... _yet_. Remembering to pay attention to what was in front of her so she wouldn't hurt herself, she glanced over only to realize she was going too fast; at this rate, she was never going to be able to stop in time.

The wall in front of her separating tracks 9 and 10 was getting closer and she knew she was going to crash into it. Closing her eyes, she willed herself to stop before she got seriously hurt this time. Just as she was about to hit it, she squinted her eyes closed even tighter expecting to hit something hard, but it never came. Silently wondering if she had missed it, she decided to open her eyes to check so she didn't get hit by a train, but being the clumsy girl she was, she tripped on something and tumbled across the platform. Slowly but surely, she could feel herself slowly phasing back into her human form… The thought that she only had the clothes she'd strapped to her ankle to change into never occurred to her.

Finally managing to open her eyes, she realized she was still tumbling at top speed across the platform and managed to catch the number. _'Platform 9 ¾,'_ she read to herself, realizing she'd never seen this one here before and, quite frankly, she wasn't even convinced it existed. Then again, stranger things had happened to her. Tumbling onto the train waiting there, she fell into something that covered her from anyone's sight. Before she even had the time to wonder where exactly she was, she quickly remembered her clothes and changed into them before removing the curtain from on top of her and looking around in confusion, strands of her blonde hair falling in the way of her eyes. Her problems couldn't get too much worse, could they?

~~~~~~ Genevieve ran through the entrance to King's Cross station with her carriage like a madwoman, nearly running over everyone in her way. She looked down at her watch once again to check the time. 10:50. _'Running late as usual_,_'_ she thought, _'I only have 10 minutes to get to the platform before the train leaves without me!_ _Which reminds me, I was so anxious to get to the train station I didn't looked at my ticket yet to even find out where I'm supposed to be going.' _She shook her head, reached into her pocket, and pulled out her ticket, then stopped dead in her tracks. '_Platform 9 and ¾? Is that even possible? There must be some mistake.'_ She began running once again and headed for Platforms 9 and 10, noticing this mystery platform wasn't there. _'There must be someone that can explain this to me.'_

Noticing a guard passing by, she went up to him, figuring he might be able to tell her what was going on. "Excuse me," she said to get his attention and he turned to her expectantly, "I'm having a little trouble with my ticket. It says I'm supposed to be going to Platform 9 and ¾."

The guard paused for a moment and cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out what she was getting at. "9 and ¾?" he replied, looking at her like she was crazy, "Don't be ridiculous." With that, he walked away mumbling, leaving the brunette to sigh hopelessly.

She looked at her watch again. 10:54. _'I'll never make it to Hogwarts at this rate...'_ She groaned as she rolled her carriage over to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

Pulling it up against the wall, she went to lean back, but never hit it; instead she fell. She grabbed the handle of her cart to catch her balance, but pulled it down with her instead as she hit the floor with a thud. She stayed on the floor for a moment, wondering what had happened. She didn't seem to be hurt so much as confused, which she guessed she took as a good sign. Standing up, she looked around noticing that she wasn't standing between platforms 9 and 10 anymore. When she turned around, her jaw dropped as she stared in awe.

The Hogwarts express was waiting on the tracks in front of her and students were loading onto the train. She looked up and smiled to herself. _'Platform 9 and ¾,'_ she thought to herself excitedly, _'I made it.'_ It definitely wasn't the best way of getting there but that wasn't important. She was there and that's all that mattered. She grabbed her carriage and walked towards the train, picking up her trunk and boarding the train just as the whistle was blowing. Looking down at her watch again, she noticed what time it was; exactly 11:00; right on time.

~~~~~~ "_Ethan, hurry up!_" Sharpay bellowed to her brother, but seeing him give her a look, she sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine. Ryan. Whatever. Why did you have to go and change your stupid name anyway?"

They had been walking to the platform to get on their train to Hogwarts. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him the rest of the way because they were, of course, running late because Ethan was always rather slow and she was getting annoyed. Sharpay had been very excited to go to Hogwarts ever since she found out from their mom; she was wearing her witch's hat and everything, though her brother didn't seem all that thrilled. Before Ethan had a chance to answer her question, he noticed the look on his sister's face when she saw what time it was and he promptly kept his mouth shut; 11:00._ 'We're so going to miss the train,'_ Sharpay panicked to herself as she kept hold of her brother and ran, but stopped between tracks 9 and 10 as she realized something was missing.

"Ethan, where the hell is the gate?" she yelled, not caring that she was calling him by his real name and not his stupid made up name, "_Ugh!_ We're going to be late!"

Ethan had given up trying to argue with her a long time ago, but he had to admit she had a point. Platform 9 ¾ was nowhere to be seen. Just the name suggested it shouldn't even exist. The pair of blondes stood there looking around for a simple explanation, but even they knew things weren't always what they seemed. Maybe the ticket meant they were supposed to go to Platform 9. Before he could suggest that maybe there had been a mistake when printing the ticket, Sharpay grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him to get him to put some effort into helping her figure out what was going on. Ethan stumbled backwards and fell right through the wall in between the platforms.

'_What the hell?'_ Sharpay thought in confusion, watching him disappear right before her eyes. After a moment, she picked up her luggage and followed him, hoping that was their gate to this mysterious magical platform. When she got to the other side of the wall, she noticed her brother dusting himself off as he stood up and collected his luggage. The train's whistle signaled to its passengers that it was about to leave. "Come on, we have to go," she yelled, grabbing Ethan's arm and rushing onto the train just as the doors closed behind them. She sighed to herself, making sure they had everything with them. "Phew, that was close," she said, turning to Ethan and gave him a sharp look, "Next time, don't take so damn long."

~~~~~~ A mysterious brunette had been just strolling around casually, trying not to look suspicious as he approached the station. A small blue creature sat on his shoulder, half asleep. The boy softly stroked his pet's head and slowly walked over to a wall in between platforms 9 and 10. Quickly hiding behind it, he transformed into his ghost form. His brown hair was now snow white and his originally blue eyes glowed green. He leaned against the wall as he was turning intangible and, without taking notice, fell on the ground.

"Oomph," he muttered, landing with a hard thump, waking his pet in the process. Getting up and brushing the dirt off himself, he started looking around. "Where are we, Al?" he asked the mudkip perched on his shoulder.

"Mud Mud Kippppp," the blue creature replied back.

The ghost boy just stared blankly at him and then grinned as he realized what that meant. "Oh, well, I don't know where I am, but I know I'm gonna have lots of fun," he stated, an evil smirk tugging at his lips as his eyes turned blood red for a second before returning to normal once again. Popping the collar on his leather jacket, he walked toward the train with his best friend on his shoulder and his luggage in hand. All the while, not noticing he was still in his ghost form.

As he walked into the train, his pet jumped on his head as if trying to tell him something. "What is it, Al?" the boy asked him and, as he looked up, the mudkip started pulling on his hair. The ghost boy reached up and attempted to get him off his head. Suddenly, he noticed that his hair was white as the blue mudkip returned to his perch on the boy's shoulder.

'_Oh, no, no, no, how could I be so stupid?'_ He quickly ran inside one of the booths inside the train and changed back to his human form, turning his hair back to its natural dark chestnut color with streaks of blonde in it as his eyes returned to their original shade of blue. He swiftly emerged from the booth and started to wander around the train.

~~~~~~ The blonde wolf girl noticed the doors of the train closing and began to panic slightly. _'What am I going to do now?'_ she thought to herself, realizing she was back to her full human form. Glancing around the train at all the funny people who looked to be maybe about her age and older, she noticed them wearing all sorts of different clothes; most wearing or changing into these silly black robes. _'Where am I and what dimension did I stumble into this time?'_ She shook her head, standing up, and began to walk through the train in confusion. Sure, her original plan was to get on a train and leave this place, but something didn't seem right. There had to be somebody who could explain this to her.

As she continued to wander the train, which hadn't even left the station yet, she stopped and stood still, eyes widened. She perked her ears a bit to listen. There was something strange outside and it seemed... different. It wasn't like anything she'd picked up on before. Sniffing the air, she noticed its scent was definitely unusual; not human... not quite alive either. What could possibly be causing her senses to tingle like that? She looked out one of the windows and there it was; this strange boy with this funny-looking creature sitting on his shoulder and he was nearing the train with this strange grin on his face.

Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind that frightened her a bit. _'Maybe they found me and sent that... _thing _out to get me and drag me back,'_ she began to panic. She stood still, frozen, glued to her spot as the meaning of that thought overwhelmed her. She had to do something, but didn't know quite what. The only thing she was sure of was that boy wasn't giving off any heat. _'What is he?'_ she wondered to herself, trying her hardest not to be spotted by it.

She watched in horror as she saw the boy literally walk into the train and he didn't get in through a door. _'That's definitely not normal,'_ she thought in fear, _'What is that thing?'_

This would usually be the part in the horror movie where she'd hide behind her mum until it was over, but unfortunately she was a long way from home; farther away from home now than she'd ever been. Carefully checking through the window in the door leading into the next car, she could see all the way through the train to where someone had pulled the shade on one of the doors, blocking her view. The boy, it, thing was only a few cars ahead of her and she couldn't afford to let him see her. She just couldn't... He might try to take her back and she couldn't have him do that; not now... now that she'd come this far. Sensing him approaching in her direction, she hid in one of the little booths which she'd landed in to begin with.

'_He _can't_ see me. He just can't,'_ she thought, biting her lip worriedly, trying her best to make herself invisible, _'But there's nowhere else to go. I'm trapped.'_

~~~~~~ The brunette slowly made his way through the cars, looking around the train for an empty booth, but all of them were packed with people until he finally saw one with only one person in it. Pausing, he could sense a huge amount of fear coming from that particular booth. _'Did this girl see me transform?'_ he wondered, putting up his innocent façade, and walked into the room with her.

"Um, hi... Can I sit with you?" he asked her quietly, casting her a lost puppy look.

'_I should win an award for my amazing acting skills,'_ he thought to himself, his facial expression betraying no part of what he was thinking.

The frightened blonde girl looked at him hard, trying her best not to show him how freaked out she was that he'd found her. He seemed like he didn't really know who she was, though she couldn't really tell because he had the puppy dog eyes all wrong. In truth, he was actually pretty good – she would know, since she had tons of practice giving people that face all the time. She figured biting him would be out of the question if he could just phase right through her grip.

'_How am I going to get around it this time?'_ she pondered, giving him a thorough inspection, _'There is no way he's going to take me back.'_

"Uh... sure... I guess," she answered casually, positioning herself nearest the exit of the booth in case she needed to make a quick get away.

He looked different this time from when she saw him at a distance. His hair was different... and his eyes weren't the same scary color they were before. She was positive it was the same person though. His odd scent was still there, tickling her nose. He seemed kind of friendly, but that's just what they wanted her to think. She quickly decided she wasn't going to take any chances. She'd just have to watch her back and not let her guard down. She'd even fight if she needed to.

'_No matter what, he isn't going to take me back again. Not now. Not ever,'_ she sighed heavily as she tried to calm herself so as not to betray her doubts.

"Thanks. By the way, my name is Mason and this is my pal, Alphonse," the boy said, referring to the mudkip on his shoulder as he sat down across from her.

"Mud Mud Kippppp," Alphonse said cheerfully to the girl. Mason gave her a smile and tried to act on his best behavior; the _last_ thing he wanted was for his secret to get out.

"Heh," she muttered, noticing his all-too-innocent smile and that little... thing on his shoulder.

It really didn't seem like he knew who she was. That was strange. She was usually good at reading people and he definitely seemed like he was hiding something, but that could just be the thing she'd seen before. In any case, she didn't want to be that quick to trust him, but she could at least give him her name, right? And if he was waiting for that moment to grab her, she could always run away and get help. Then again... who would help a little girl who was running away from a boy who looked about her age? Not many people actually.

"I'm... Cloe," she told him quietly, looking around for anyone she might recognize who might be hiding somewhere so they could jump out and attack her at any moment. Turning back to the odd boy, she eyeballed the little Alphonse on his shoulder. It kept looking at her curiously and she got the feeling she was being watched by more than just that... whatever it really was.

"Oh, well it's nice to meet you, Cloe," Mason said with a small smile. He didn't want to overdo the innocent boy act and besides, he had a feeling she knew he was hiding either his Death Note or his ghost powers. Either way, he felt a strange presence coming from her.

'_I better watch my back,'_ he decided to himself, sitting back in his seat. He could feel his dark side starting to take over from the inside and his eyes started to change color, but he quickly stopped himself before his expression began to change. _'This girl might be suspicious, but I don't want to kill her... at least not yet... and besides I don't know her last name, so for now I better control myself and lay low,'_ he thought to himself.

Alphonse slowly crawled onto his lap and he began to gently scratch his friend's head. "So, how long does this train take to get to Hogwarts?" he asked, luckily having overheard some kids talking about the upcoming year on the way here, so he assumed the train was going there. From what he'd heard, he thought it was some type of magical school or something.

'_So, that's where I'm going,_' Cloe thought, finding herself slightly relieved, but curious all the same. She'd originally been under the impression these people were going to some kind of dork convention. At least she would have fit in at one of those.

The two continued to talk for a little while longer until Cloe went dead silent and wouldn't stop giving him this hard look. Mason pretended to be uncomfortable, though he knew she knew something.

**(A/N) Okay pplz. This is chappie one of the ever exciting roleplay and now story started forever ago! WOOT! I can just feel the excitement. I expect reviews and definitely some readers, too. Seriously… I've been having such a bad year, the least you can do is make things a little bit better by leaving me even just a sentence about whether or not you liked this totally original idea my peeps and I worked so hard to come up with. Oh, come on, guys. You know I luv you! huggles! 3**

**EDIT:**

**As many of you may know from looking at my updated profile, I'm embarking on a massive "spring cleaning" of my entire account – including each of my profiles and _ALL_ of my stories. This is the 18th fic I uploaded to my account.**

**So, here are the edits I made to this chapter: fixed a few grammatical errors, corrected the formatting, tweaked a few words in the narration, and weeded out any spelling errors there might have been. Nothing drastic.**

_**Original**__** post:**_ 10/8/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/23/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	2. Elves In Hogwarts

**Chapter 2: Elves in Hogwarts**

Ah, blissful sleep... and then you hear your wife nagging in your ears. Obviously, this is Haldir speaking, telling the events of this strange and unpredictable day. It was like any other in the ever-peaceful City of Trees – birds chirping, sun shining warmly on your face, your wife constantly blabbing in your ear... Alright, _that_ wasn't pleasant, but everything else was.

"...said get up _fifteen minutes ago!"_

"Gah!" the tired elf groaned, "Leave me lie another few minutes. I hardly got any sleep last night."

"Through no fault of my own," his _darling_ wife, MP snapped. Blatant use of sarcasm, right there. See? In italics, just so it would be visible. Right.

"Well," he continued, "I apologize if I had to be there at our newest warden's induction ceremony."

"You definitely did not have to drink three bottles of Dorwinion by yourself."

He opened his mouth to retort, but realized she had him there. He hated it when that happened. All he could say in his defense was, "It was not three; I only had half a bottle."

He could have sworn she said something that sounded oddly like, "MALES!" as she stormed out of the room.

~~~~~~ _'Oh. My. Goodness. May the Valar shine their grace down on me, PLEASE! I have been trying to wake up this great lout for_ centuries_, and still he does not budge!'_ Laerwen thought.

She had moved into the kitchen to attempt to get breakfast started, keyword _**ATTEMPT**_, as she had been known for burning water. It smells. A lot. Not hearing any movement coming from their bedroom, she decided to go back in and have a peek.

'_Uhuh. Still there,'_ she figured to herself, shaking her head at this. How many times did she have to repeat herself before her husband would learn to wake _himself_ up on time?

"Haldir, I said get up _fifteen minutes ago!"_

Let the war begin.

After she managed to drag him out of bed and into the water closet, she hurried back to the stove, wishing she had put off bonding with him for _all effing eternity_ for another century or ten. But _noooooooooo_, she had to do it right away! Which, of course, involved waiting a year after his proposal, as was traditional, and practically law, for all elves, whether they be from Greenwood the Great, Lothlórien, or Imladris. While waiting for the bread to toast this time, and not burn to little charcoal bricks again, she twisted the simple gold ring upon the index finger of her right hand, contemplating the pros and cons of married life.

Pros: She had a beautiful, kind, caring, and loving husband who would do anything in the entire world for her, except pick up a needle here and there to sew up all the holes he manages to create in his clothing. He also didn't complain (usually) about her lack of cooking skills, which seemed to have gone on an indefinite holiday around age fifty, or something like that.

Cons: He snores. Loudly. He never helped her with the mending. He never even tried to cook, saying that he was much more hopeless than she. First of all, _right. _She was the worst cook in_ existence_! Second of all, puh-lease! She supposed he enjoys coming home to half charred food every night. Oh, and she forgot to mention the fact that he walks as bloody silent as a cat.

She was so deep in contemplation that she never heard him come up behind her. She jumped and squeaked rather adorably, she must admit, as he wrapped his arms around her waist and murmured in her ear, "The toast is burning, my love."

"_Ai!_" she leaped forward, knocking her hip against the table corner in her haste to get to the small oven, and retrieved the toast rack with little blackened and crispy squares between the wires keeping them in place.

Not to mention, she was still waiting for that bruise to fade from hitting her hip in the same spot over and over again. It hurt. A lot. She also forgot to mention in her pros and cons list, under the _cons _section of course, that A.) she was dead clumsy, and B.) Haldir was not. Drat. So, while Lord Stick-up-his-Royal-Arse was laughing his fine blonde head off, she had burnt hands, burnt toast, a sore and bruised hip, and a most sore and bruised ego.

"You are so... so... _ugh_! I have no idea why I still put up with you!" she stormed, striding into their bedroom to get changed into a regular, burgundy gown. Haldir followed, of course, and laughed even more at her rumpled appearance as she struggled to shove her arm into the sleeve. Naturally, the gown had to be backwards. _Gah!_ "I am going to the market. Make yourself useful and come with me."

Sobering up, he placed a kiss on her nose, making a show of bending at the waist to meet her 4'11" frame, and said, "Of course, dear heart."

"Keep all your sweet talk to yourself. Manwë knows that is how you got me to bond with you."

"But you have no regrets, do you, darling?"

Blast it all. She just could not refuse those beautiful blue-grey eyes, especially when they looked at her so pleadingly!

"No," she sighed, "I do not."

~~~~~~ Their walk to the market on the forest floor was mostly silent, consisting only of greetings to those around them out and about on their early morning duties around the city. "Ah, here we are," she said, mostly to herself.

"Really," came his dry answer, "I hadn't noticed."

"Oh, do shut up." She nodded to the shopkeeper, browsed the shelves, bought what they needed, and then headed to the bakery.

"Why do we need to go there?" Haldir queried.

"Because I burnt the last of the toast."

"What happened to the other loaves of bread we had at home?" he asked.

She just gave him a look. "Darling, you do not want to know."

"Ah." That word just about summed up all her failed attempts in the kitchen.

Laerwen, what has happened to the turkey? You don't want to know. Ah.

Sweetling, where did the bottle of milk go? A look. Ah. It ended up thousands of feet below, smashed to pieces on the ground. Whoops.

As they ascended into the trees again, Haldir steered her over in the direction of Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel, his foster parents', talan. She looked at him questioningly.

"I promised them I would visit," he said by way of explanation. A shrug. Another one in return. Yup, married life was excellent. Fan-bloody-tastic.

~~~~~~ His brothers, Rùmil and Orophin, were already there, talking with the Lord and Lady. "Naneth, Ada!" Haldir greeted them enthusiastically. He thumped his brothers on the back, kissed the Lady's cheek, and hugged Lord Celeborn.

"It is nice to see you again, Naneth. And you too, Ada," Laerwen said, juggling the packages in her arms so she could greet them properly. Orophin laughed and took them away, placing them on the table. Which, of course, she smacked her hip on. Other side, this time. Great.

A short visit turned into an hour, and an hour turned into three. Laerwen and Haldir were just leaving, when all of a sudden, they, and by they, meaning all six of them, felt an odd tightening about them, as if they were being shoved down some sort of stretchy tube. Then everything went black. What Laerwen did not expect, however, was to find herself on the floor of some odd castle, staring into the electric blue eyes of a white haired old man with half-moon shaped... well, they could only be described as _things,_ on the end of his very long and crooked nose.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" he said.

Her life was over.

"Who are you?" she asked, rather brilliantly, if she did say so herself. Yeah effing right.

"Why, I am Albus Dumbledore. My full name is rather too long, if I do say so myself, so I will spare you the extra consonants and just continue on with the introduction. I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Quite an impressive place, isn't it?" he looked around through those glass and wire bits on the end of his nose and said, "Who are you?"

Lady Galadriel introduced herself first, followed by Lord Celeborn, then Haldir, Orophin, Rùmil, and lastly, the smallest of the group. "My name is Laerwen, and I am married to Haldir, Marchwarden of Lothlórien."

"What is a Marchwarden?" this Dumbledore asked. Ah, the ever-curious males. You've gotta love them. Sarcasm, my darlings, sarcasm!

"I am in charge of all the troops in Lothlórien," Haldir said just a mite (LEAGUE!) pompously.

"Ah. Interesting." Those piercing blue eyes, so uncannily like the Lady's, glittered behind the things. "And where is that?"

"Middle Earth," was the instant reply. Coordinates straight off the compass followed, but naturally, Laerwen did not care for those.

"Ah. Well, it seems that you have been brought several thousand years into the future, if I am not much mistaken." The smallest elf had an odd feeling that he was hardly ever mistaken.

"Come quickly now and into the Great Hall. The students should be arriving at any second. Perhaps... Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel, you might be impromptu teachers, or all of you?"

"What do you mean by that?" Haldir asked, looking suspiciously (and pompously) at the old man.

"Someone could teach of the history of Middle Earth, others could teach... oh, I don't know, maybe how to use a sword, or the bow and arrows, and..." Here he paused. "My dear," Laerwen had a feeling, again, that he called every female this, "I do not know what you do."

"She nags, burns all the food, is clumsier than a drunken Halfling, and yet manages to dance while staying upright. I do not know how," her darling husband interjected before she could utter a word.

Stomping on his foot, she said, "I can also teach them how to speak Sindarin. I was always fair at languages."

"Good, good! I shall introduce you to the other staff now."

~~~~~~ Dumbledore took them around the High Table, which was situated rather like Lord Elrond's in Imladris, introduced them to the other teachers, and pronounced most of their names well, although he turned to the smallest one with an apologetic look on his face and said, "I am sorry, my dear, but for fear of butchering your very lovely name, I would have you say it instead."

So, Laerwen told them. Dumbledore conjured, literally, six more chairs with a thin, knobbly stick, and bade them sit there. Of course, Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel looked simply resplendent in their beautiful white garments, while Laerwen looked like any other normal, brown-haired-and-eyed midget elf.

'_FUN, which stands for Fucking UNbelieveable!'_ she noted to herself rather randomly, _'I have no idea where that came from.'_

So, then the students came filing in. She saw all the girls' eyes zoom right over towards Haldir, Orophin, Rùmil, and yes, even Lord Celeborn, which she could tell the Lady was highly amused at, and all the boys' go straight to her. Naturally, Lord Celeborn got overprotective and looked sternly at each and every one of them. They looked away, abashed. Some even looked terrified. And then the introductions began a-bloody-gain. Joy.

Was she nervous? Oh, yes.

Did she want to go back home? _Morgoth's chains, yes!_

Was she confused as to how she got to this strange place where people conjured things out of thin air with thin, pointy sticks? Uhuh!

Was she terrified? More so than the day she bonded with Haldir... for all effing eternity... Oi.

She couldn't take the curious stares they were all getting anymore and so she snuck her hand beneath the table, searching for Haldir's. She bumped his leg accidentally and he looked down at her with a smirk.

"Yes?" he asked in their native tongue.

"I'm terrified."

He leaned over to whisper in her ear, "So am I. It is all so strange here. Sticks that can make chairs come out of nowhere? The man with eyes like Naneth?" Laerwen knew he was referring to the way the man called Dumbledore or something like that's eyes seemed to look right through you into the very deepest recesses of your soul. "Yes. It is all so... I do not know the word for it, my heart, but when I find it..." He laughed quietly and held her hand tightly in his large, calloused, warm one.

"Do you think they will give us rooms in here?" she asked suddenly.

"I hope they give you and me _a _room." He smirked.

She just rolled her eyes, entirely used to this, as it has already been a century they were bonded. _'Married life is an orc,'_ she concluded.

Suddenly, everything quieted down and she realized that Dumbledore or whatever his name was was now making a speech and again, introducing them. Apparently, their classes would not be mandatory and would be held outside until winter came and everything started to freeze over. She wondered if he knew that they didn't get cold. And then– _POOF_! Food appeared on platters in front of them. She recoiled in shock, murmuring, "Valar!" Glancing over at Haldir, she saw him quickly school his expression back into one of cool indifference, while Orophin was poking lightly at a lump of mashed potatoes on his plate.

"Dig in!" the white-haired man said.

The students needed no further encouragement. Laerwen suddenly noticed a man with black, greasy hair and sallow skin with a hooked nose sitting to the right of Haldir. She knew he hadn't been there before, else she would have recognized him. "Mae govannen," she said quietly, "I do not believe we met."

He looked over and she got the familiar prickling sensation that happened when her mother-in-law spoke telepathically with her. Narrowing her eyes a bit, Laerwen spoke to him while he was still ruffling at the corners of her mind, _"My thoughts are my own, youngling. You would do well to heed this warning."_

_"And what do you mean by that?"_ he snarked. _Ooooh_, he was even worse than her husband with a hangover. _"I have more experience in these matters."_

He. Did. Not. _"I am older than your father's grandfather would be today, boy! Do not test me!"_

Aware of their clashing minds, Haldir laid a hand gently upon her thigh. "Dear heart, let it be."

"Are you mad? Or just plain stupid?" she hissed back, "He was attempting to search my thoughts." She noticed the Lady's brows go up slightly, as apparently he tried to do the same with her, and got similar results. "Serves him right," Laerwen grumbled, "Mayhap that will teach him to mind his business." Haldir only gave her a superior smile while he continued to eat, causing about half the female population to sigh. _'Mandos, take me to your Halls!'_ she pleaded silently.

Dinner was frightening, to say the least. Would it be like this all the time? Or would the food magically, for there was no other word for it, appear only for the first feast and then be normal for the rest? Ai, Elbereth! The questions kept swirling around her head to no end, it seemed. Maybe a night of rest would calm her nerves and in the morning she might wake up to realize this was all a dream, but somehow she doubted it.

**(A/N) Okay, this whole chappie goes to MP entirely cuz, well… she wrote it! WOOT! Go MP! Go MP! WOOT! (does a celebratory dance)**

**Okay, so hope everyone liked it. And uh… well, leave me and obviously my totally ahmazing peeps reviews. As I said before: very bad year for me, so pwease just write something. Oh, and come on… again, as I said before, you know I'm eternally grateful, right? Good. Luv ya, guys! Huggles! 3**

**EDIT:**

**Although the time has passed for a chance at a casual relationship of sorts between me and the author of this chapter, I must admit I still admire Luthien Saralonde's writing. I do hope she'll come back to the roleplay once we start it up again, though some part of me kind of doubts it. College is a pain in the arse. *nods***

**So, again, here are some of the minor edits I made to this chapter: fixed a few grammatical errors, corrected the formatting, added a few missing words in the narration, and weeded out any spelling errors there might have been (mostly accents on Elven words).**

_**Original**____**post:**_ 10/8/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/23/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	3. Dinner in the Great Hall

**Chapter 3: Dinner in the Great Hall**

The train ride had been pretty uneventful for the blonde twins. Sharpay had been so anxious to get to the school, she hadn't stopped fidgeting the entire ride there. When they _had_ finally arrived, she'd been so exited that she'd run off without Ethan. She was rendered speechless upon arriving in the Great Hall; the school was so beautiful. She was so thrilled, she dragged her brother, who had finally caught up to her for the Sorting ceremony, to a table and sat down to eat when the food magically appeared on the table in front of them. Though, glancing around, she found it hard to eat with the variety of incredibly drool-worthy creatures around her.

Mason saw many different types of creatures and people in the room he'd followed everyone else into. _'Good, I'll just befriend some people and, when they are no use to me, I'll just kill them,' _he thought to himself, his evil smirk returning, and he put up his façade once again as he wandered around to a table where he saw a blonde pair, who appeared to be siblings.

"Hi." He shot them a friendly smile and they looked over at him curiously.

"Hey." Sharpay smiled at the boy, who she noted was drop dead gorgeous.

"You new here?" he asked.

'_So far, so good,'_ he thought, noticing how he'd gotten their attention; he could already tell the girl liked him and he could definitely sense strong magical powers from the two of them, _'Maybe they _will_ be of use to me after all.'_ He'd have to be careful not to mess up and give himself away to them. Maybe he could play them for all they were worth after all.

"Yeah, I'm Sharpay and this is my brother Et-Ryan," she introduced the two of them, catching herself before she could slip up this time and out her brother's real name. She still wondered why changing it meant so much to him, though she supposed he was just weird like that. She held her hand out to the boy, trying her best not to pay attention to the strange looks she was getting from her abnormally quiet twin.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Sharpay and Ryan." Mason took her hand and shook it gently, watching the smile on Sharpay's face widen as he gave her a charming smile.

'_What fools,' _he added to himself, his smile betraying no trace of his real plans.

"Likewise," Sharpay said charmingly, noticing how nice her hand felt in his, but he let go all too soon. She tried not to look so disappointed.

Just then, Mason realized he hadn't told her his name yet. _'How stupid of me.'_ He sighed to himself so they wouldn't notice this gesture.

"I'm Mason, by the way. So, what houses are you guys part of? I'm a Hufflepuff," he told them proudly. He had found out what house he was supposed to be a part of when they put a ridiculous talking hat on his head.

'_Hufflepuff?'_ he repeated to himself in disdain, having never heard anything like it in his entire 300 or so odd years of living, _'What type of name is that?'_ Thankfully, he still looked thirteen, otherwise his attempts at getting along here might have been harder than he thought.

"Slytherin," Sharpay responded with a grin, "My brother here got Hufflepuff. I told him to get the same as me, but _no_." She cast a particularly nasty glare at Ethan before turning back to Mason. "That's a nice name, by the way," she said sweetly as her brother gave her a look for that comment.

"Thanks. Sucks you aren't in the same house as us... Anyway I should get going, I gotta go unpack and get settled in. I'll see ya tomorrow, Sharpay, and I guess I'll see you in the dorm, Ryan," he told them with another innocent smile before walking off to the Hufflepuff corridor, feeling an evil grin creep across his face as his eyes turned blood red once again.

Sharpay sighed as she watched him walk away, disappearing around the corner as a few more students got up and left the room. When he was gone, she turned back to Ethan. "You have _got_ to get me into Hufflepuff," she hissed, grabbing the front of his shirt demandingly to emphasize her point.

"Well, it's not my fault you have a naturally sinister soul," he teased her, though he wasn't quite sure if he really was teasing her or not. Something about that overfriendly dude had him on guard. He'd dealt with their father being evil and he wasn't exactly sure if he could handle that much more of being used in his life; it had happened way too much and for way too long. All he knew was that nobody could figure out his real name or his past and he definitely wasn't looking all that forward to spending "quality time" with Mason either.

"Ethan!" she yelled at him, not caring that she was using his real name as she slapped him hard across the face, "You _must_ get me in that house do you understand?" This might just be her only chance to get close to a guy other than her brother and the only thing in her way was the fact that they were in practically opposite houses.

"That's_ it_. When you learn to treat me right and _stop_ using that name... _maybe _I'll see if I can do something for you," Ethan grunted as he pushed her away from him, taken aback by the blow and reached up to rub his jaw, "I'm going to take a walk. I'll be back later, though I doubt you'll still be here." With that, he turned around to leave the room, not caring if she followed him or not. He just needed to clear his head.

"_Ugh_, what has gotten into you?" Sharpay yelled at his retreating back in frustration. She asked him to do one simple thing for him and he couldn't even do that. Now she asked him to help her out personally and he wasn't even willing to _try_? He could be so selfish sometimes.

~~~~~~ That Mason kid had ditched Cloe when they'd gotten to this huge castle, so she'd run inside and found herself in these strange hallways. She'd wandered around for a while, wondering where she was exactly. She'd thought Mason had said it was called Hogwarts, but it didn't exactly look like a hog with warts; it was just an extremely huge castle with really silly-looking cloths on the walls and statues of strange metal people. She'd quickly decided she had to watch her back. Just as long as those hunters didn't find her, she'd be fine.

Ending up in this room where these little people were busying themselves with dishes and cleaning, she went up to them and started talking. They seemed nice. One of them, his name was Dobby, was really friendly and showed her around the kitchen. He'd even shown her how they got food up to the dining hall. _'I could have fun with this place,'_ she thought to herself mischievously. This was definitely the kind of thing she needed after all that running for her life and what a better way to spend her free time than munching on leftovers and playing around with whatever seemed fun? Though, there _was_ one thing she really wanted to try.

Waiting until most of the little people weren't looking, she took a plate of strange food, placed it on a random platform that made the food go to the Great Hall, and watched it disappear. Giggling to herself, she felt quite excessively entertained as she placed a few more plates on the platform and watched them disappear as well. _'This is fun,' _she realized in delight. Even though it was so pathetically simple, she couldn't help but feel the most entertained than she could remember she had in a long time.

Meanwhile, up above in the Great Hall, Ryan just grumbled in response, not turning back to even spare a glance at his sister. Just then, he heard her scream and he shook his head, groaning at her persistence to get what she wanted all the time. He turned around, quickly saying in frustration, "_Now what?_" Then, he burst out laughing upon seeing Sharpay covered in food that had just appeared out of nowhere. If there really was someone out there looking out for him, they knew just how to get even. Revenge was definitely sweet.

Cloe couldn't help it. The kitchen was just so much fun, she couldn't stop. She placed another plate on the platform and giggled just as the little people told her to stop. Reluctantly, she walked away kind of disappointed, wondering what had happened up above. She had no doubt it was amusing. She naturally had that effect on people.

Suddenly, another plate of food appeared out of nowhere and flew through the air, hitting Ethan in the face. He stopped laughing and sighed. "I probably deserved that," he admitted with a slight smile. It may be funny, but he doubted Dumbledore would have approved of this. He decided he was going to have to find the kitchen and figure out what had happened... and possibly post a complaint.

Sharpay huffed and marched over to Ethan. "That was _not_ funny," she screamed at him, not knowing who else to blame for this, "_Somebody's going to pay!_"

"Let's go figure out who did this," Ethan grumbled as they headed in the direction of the kitchen. He still had no idea where he was going, but he figured he'd find it eventually. And even if he couldn't find it on his own, someone would have to notice them being almost completely covered in food and ask what had happened. That way, he might be able to ask them to figure out what it was so he could clean up and forget this ever happened.

Sharpay huffed and followed her brother. "I hope you know where you're going," she said to him grudgingly, still unable to make sense of the past few minutes. She just hoped Mason wouldn't see her like this before she had the chance to get all this gunk off her. The last thing she needed was for him to think she was a freak.

Cloe continued giggling to herself the entire time, wondering what else she could play with while she was kept in this strange place with all her new friends. She watched the little people bustle back and forth across the floor with dishes and cleaning utensils in their tiny hands. She couldn't help but think it was kind of cute how they knew just exactly what to do and took such good care of such a large place. From what Dobby had told her, it was their job to make sure everything was spotless and ready for use at all times and they were even there for guidance, which was something she knew she was going to need. Though their jobs interested her and she debated whether or not to ask if she could help, she couldn't help but think she had to watch her back for that Mason guy; he seemed dangerous; really dangerous.

~~~~~~ Mason had a nagging feeling that Ryan kid was suspicious of him as well. _'I have to hand it to him. He isn't as dumb as I thought he was,' _he thought over their recent conversation and the strange look that had remained on the blonde boy's face the whole time before reminding himself, _'I have to be careful with that Cloe girl as well. I think she knows something.'_

"Tsk, Tsk, Mason. You've been here for not even a day and people are already suspicious of you?" Ryuk asked him as he cackled where he floated above the brunette.

"Shut up, Ryuk, or I won't give you any apples," he whispered ferociously at the annoying slightly scary-looking winged man as he walked into an empty room and transformed into a ghost. He turned invisible and started floating around the huge castle; he didn't want to get caught, especially with people like Ryan or Cloe around. The last thing he was in the mood to do was unnecessarily have to kill someone.

~~~~~~ Looking around the hall after dinner, when all of the students were filing out into noisy groups, Laerwen noticed one in particular. The girl had been at one of the tables, but slightly nervous due to all the glowy people– I mean the small elf's in-laws, and again was looking up in their direction. "Haldir, look. She has been doing that all night," Laerwen whispered to her husband.

He chuckled. "Probably never saw an elf before."

They remained at the High Table until the room was devoid of all save the tutors, she supposed they were. She honestly had no idea. All she wanted was to go back home and continue to burn toast.

Once everything was over, each of them were shown to separate rooms. Eventually, Haldir and Laerwen were left. Dumbledore, or something, looked over his shoulder at them and said, "You two said you were married, no?"

"Aye. I am married to this... erm..." Haldir stopped speaking at the look his wife gave him. "Aye, I am married to her," was all he said.

Dumbledore nodded, and said, "Very well then, you two may have this room. If you need anything, say Dobby, Snufflepoo, Lumpermuffin, etc. and a house elf will guide you. The corridors can be especially treacherous to newcomers." He made to walk away, then turned around. "Oh, and the stairs move." With a twinkling of his brilliant blue eyes, he was gone.

"Ahm... that was a bit... odd," Laerwen said quietly, entering what promised to be very comfortable living quarters.

"Right," Haldir finished in affirmation.

"I know not about you, but this... situation has made me exhausted."

"Me as well, dear heart," he agreed.

**(A/N) That does not at all even begin to sum up the first day of this strange story. There is definitely more soon. Don't you just love the parts with the elves in it? MP, of course, wrote them all. XD Aren't you so proud of her? Well, I dunno about that quite honestly? Big huggles to all of my peeps! WOOT! You guys rock! 3**

**Please leave reviews… pretty reviews… flames (dare I even think of such a word) are accepted, though I hope not to get them.**

**OOH… wouldn't it be odd if a certain serial flamer were to find this and burn it up to a crisp? I know just what that Muffin Man would say. His penname isn't really Muffin Man, I just call him that cuz quite frankly it suits him what with all those icky flavors he's concocting in his many flames, which quite frankly are ridiculous. XD So, yesh… part of me hopes he will find it. Part of me doesn't. I wish to remain anonymous to him, though I'm sure if he does read this and see the Muffin Man bit, he might remember who I am. Ah, well… Tootles! And hello, Muffin Man!**

**WOOT! HOOT! REVIEWS PPLZ! Bad year… very bad year. Reviews make me feel better. Luvers peeps! 3**

**EDIT:**

**Okiedokes… I've yet again made more changes to this chapter… Basically, I fixed a few grammatical errors, corrected the formatting, tweaked a few words in the narration, and weeded out any spelling errors there might have been. Again, they're very minor changes. And I had to edit the author's note because part of the original one no longer reigns true.**

_**Original**____**post:**_ 10/8/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/23/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	4. Apples To Apples

**Chapter 4: Apples to Apples**

Mason flew towards the kitchen with Ryuk, since the winged man with the Death Note wanted some apples to satisfy his hunger. The ghost boy silently floated into the kitchen and collected a few apples, which Ryuk quickly ate before anyone took the time to notice. They were about to leave when a loud shout announced the rather annoying arrival of the blonde siblings, Sharpay barging into the kitchen first, of course.

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" she yelled to no one in particular, blobs of mashed potato caked into her hair and bits of chicken and apple sauce running down her cheeks. Multiple other foods and desserts stained the front of the outfit she had spent weeks searching out so it would be just right for her first day of school.

"What is going on in here?" Ethan demanded to know, following his sister, who was by now huffing next to him, "Who is responsible for throwing food at us?" Part of him didn't want to know what Dumbledore would do if he found out it was one of the house elves. Then again… if he got the right explanation, he'd be most reasonably obliged to convince his sister not to tell the headmaster about the incident.

Cloe looked up from the back of the kitchen when the two blondes had stormed in, putting down the few things she'd found lying around. There they stood, covered in food, and then she realized that must have been where the food ended up. She couldn't help herself as she unsuccessfully tried to suppress her giggles; in spite of her strained efforts, it wasn't working. Her body began to shake all over and suddenly, she burst out laughing uncontrollably. The looks on their faces were just too priceless for her to pass up the opportunity.

Sharpay looked over and noticed the girl holding her sides and tearing up slightly. She ran over to the other blonde and took hold of her by the shoulders. "What is the meaning of this?" Sharpay repeated, demanding an answer from the smaller girl.

Mason started laughing silently to himself as he watched the scene in front of him unfold. _'Freakin' idiot!'_ he thought to himself. This had to be better than TV.

"Shar, don't make a scene," Ethan warned her, reaching up and noticing the dessert caked into his tufts of messy blonde hair.

Cloe stopped laughing almost immediately and glared at the intruder. "You're gonna want to let me go right now," she growled at her, trying hard to control herself so she didn't go wolf on her in front of everyone. There was no telling how her new little friends would react to a large bear-sized wolf-thing suddenly appearing in their kitchen from what used to be a friendly girl, though she could imagine it wouldn't be pretty. Suddenly, a mental image of the little people attempting to stab her with knives popped into her head and she quickly shook those thoughts away.

Sharpay chose to ignore her brother as usual. "And why is that?" she challenged the green-eyed blonde girl.

"Ohhhh, looks like the bitch is gonna hurt the weirdo," Mason whispered to Ryuk and sniggered quietly to himself.

'_Maybe I should step in,'_ he debated to himself as he quietly floated over to them.

Cloe's eyes narrowed as a smug smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. _Oooh,_ this girl did _not_ want to mess with her.

"That's what I thought. You're no match for me," Sharpay taunted, matching her opponent's smirk.

Ethan knew by the look on the other girl's face that his sister had just dug herself into a hole she would not be able to get herself out of. He'd had a feeling one day that his sister's pride and thrill of a challenge would rear up on its hind legs and bite her in the butt.

Mason just held in his laugh as he flew over to them, taunting them with faces they could do nothing about. Deciding to make a scene, he slicked back his shaggy dark chestnut hair, pulled his iPod and mini speakers out of his bag, and started playing Greased Lightning. Putting on a mask from his bag to disguise himself, he became visible and started pretending to be John Travolta while dancing on the table, figuring it would be a funny way to break up the awkward situation.

"Who said?" Cloe challenged the blonde girl, grabbing her wrist and detaching the girl from her shirt where she'd been grabbing her all in one swift movement.

Just as she was getting used to the feeling of having this kind of power over someone remarkably taller than her, she flung the unsuspecting blonde across the room onto the table where she'd been placing the food. She watched as this strange masked person she hadn't seen there before fell over due to the impact of the other girl knocking into him and the two of them were sent back up to the Great Hall again where she'd left them a few... _presents_... basically all the things she'd gotten bored with and a lot more leftover food.

Smirking, she turned back to the blonde boy and composed herself, speaking in a steady but calm voice, "Who's next? If you want to challenge me, too, then I'll send you the other way."

That just happened to be the direction of the fire place. She was getting excessively angry now and didn't want to hurt this guy, but he'd seen her overreact and quite frankly, she was afraid he'd tell someone. The little people had been ignoring everything that had been going on and continued cleaning things up and scurrying around. Cloe tried hard to control herself before she really exposed who she was. So, she settled for staring straight ahead at the blue-eyed blonde, who seemed like he didn't know whether to run away or to yell at her for tossing his sister.

Ethan continued to stare at her, undecided about what to do. "Um... sorry about that," he began, undecided as to whether he should leave to find his sister or just stay put and try to set things straight with this... _girl_. There was no way she could have thrown Sharpay without any help. She was practically a stick with giant developments and hips that looked like they could knock five people over. But then again... not that he was looking; he'd just seen her throw his sister across the room.

"Listen, boy... you don't have to look strong to be strong," she explained simply, taking an almost threatening step towards him, "So, if you don't give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you across the room, too, then I suggest you leave... _now_!"

~~~~~~ Genevieve sat in the Ravenclaw common room contemplating her trip to and at Hogwarts so far. The train ride had been pretty boring; she'd spent most of her time reading _Hogwarts: A History. _When they'd finally arrived at Hogwarts and got on the boats that took the first years to the castle for sorting, she'd thought she would accidentally fall out of the boat and into the huge lake, so she'd tried to keep herself balanced. But the most exciting part was the actual sorting. She couldn't believe she had actually been sorted into Ravenclaw! Part of her had really wanted that to happen and she was rather glad it had. The feast had been incredible; she didn't think she'd ever eat again. When the prefect took them to the common room, she'd found her belongings were already there waiting for her.

After unpacking all of her things, she realized she'd left one of her books in the Great Hall. _'Figures...'_ she sighed to herself slightly, knowing the day couldn't have gone perfectly just like she'd hoped. Though she knew she wasn't supposed to leave the common room after curfew, she realized if she didn't go back to get her book, she might never find it again. Slightly dramatic, yes, but it had happened before, so she grabbed her wand and Hogwarts robe and quietly sneaked down the stairs and out the common room door.

She was so worried she'd get caught, but somehow she made it to the Great Hall unseen and in one piece. She was about to open the door, but heard a noise inside. Suddenly afraid it might be a teacher, she didn't go in, but instead, she did crack open the door to peek in. She wasn't sure what she was looking at, but she saw a boy dressed up like... John Travolta? And he was dancing on the table and there was another girl there with him. Looking over to the table where she had sat, she saw no signs of her book. Remembering that the house elves had cleaned up after they left the Great Hall, she figured they might have taken her book to the kitchen.

Silently closing the door, the quiet brunette girl sneaked away, finding her way down to the kitchen. Before she even had the chance to decide whether or not to open the door, once again, loud noises came from inside; she listened closely.

"Listen, boy… you don't have to look strong to be strong. So, if you don't give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you across the room, too, then I suggest you leave… _now_!"

Genevieve had no idea what to do. Whoever was in there was definitely not a house elf and the girl in there sounded really angry. _'What if she hurt whoever was in there with her?'_ she questioned worriedly to herself. Again, knowing it was wrong, she opened the door and walked in.

"Um, is everything okay in here?" she asked the boy and girl who were apparently arguing while the house elves went about their usual business, working around them.

Cloe look over at the newcomer. _'Did she hear me?'_ she wondered almost worriedly to herself, _'Yeah, she probably did. Do I have to get rid of her, too?'_

"Okay, I know what you're thinking," she began slowly, "You're thinking I'm a lunatic, aren't you? Go on. Admit it. I've been called worse before, you know. Just don't drag me back to where I came from. If you do, I'll see to it that you two never ever wake up again. Got it?" Ah, she hated making threats so close to bedtime. It was rather… unnerving.

"Um... will you please just calm down for a minute so I can talk to you?" Ethan asked her before turning to the new girl who came into the kitchen, "Sorry if we disturbed you. Did you come to find something?"

'_I hope she doesn't think it's weird that I'm covered in my dinner,_' he hoped, but then realized that if he were in her position, he most likely would have made a note of it, _'Maybe if I'm lucky she won't ask.'_

"Oh, _puh_-lease! Put a sock in it, kid," Cloe stated, trying really hard to control the shaking and quivering that was traveling constantly up and down her spine, "No one wants to listen to you drawl on and on about whatever apologies you may have. Just get what you need, girl, and then leave. But keep your mouth shut or else I'll have to kill you. Got it? Whatever it was you heard just forget about it."

Most of this stuff she was saying was just so they'd leave so she could calm her inner wolf... which was more of a dog than a wolf anyway. That's the reason she wore a dog collar; it was pink... her favorite color... with pink rhinestones on it. There was no loop for a leash because there was no way anyone was going to get her to wear one of _those._ She'd rather die first, a task that would take many all too powerful people to complete. Simply put, she didn't hurt that easily.

Something caught her attention all of a sudden; it was the scent of the new girl... leading her to a corner. Glancing over, she noticed a small notebook sitting under one of the plates. She'd noticed it before, but hadn't bothered to pick it up. There was nothing interesting in it anyway; just school stuff and drawings of wizards and witches. Casually making her way over to it, she kept an eye on the other two so they wouldn't try to slip away and tell someone about her. They seemed to be watching her carefully as well, so she quickly pushed the notebook under some more plates so the girl couldn't find it and grabbed an apple to cover up being over there. Taking a bite out of it, she noted how crisp and fresh it tasted. It was better than any wild apple she had picked and continuously had to sort out for maggots in all the time she spent on the run. Ah, she was really starting to miss home, but she wouldn't let anyone else know that.

Just as she was wondering if maybe she could pry the other two for answers about if they knew where Halloweentown was, she noticed a shiny iPod on the floor by her feet. _'Must have been dropped by that strange kid in the mask,'_ she quickly tapped the off button to make that hideous music stop playing. Pocketing it, she decided to keep the little trinket... but it smelled just like that Mason kid and that strange Alphonse on his shoulder; that little blue thing that always stared at her funny. _'Why do I feel like I need to kill something?'_ she wondered to herself, realizing she needed to better control her hunting instincts, _'Bad me... Bad me... Calm down.'_

"Um... I think we understand. Right?" Ethan asked the brunette girl, who nodded in shock, before he turned back to the other girl in the room, "I'm Ryan. Who are you?"

"Why do you want to know?" Cloe retorted, suddenly feeling like she was being stalked by him or something.

'_Control yourself,'_ she kept telling herself over and over again. This was not going to work if she couldn't get some fresh air or at least some alone time to think things through.

"I'm just trying to be friendly," Ethan shrugged, risking a step towards the feisty blond.

"I... I'm... Cloe," she gave in, getting more and more nervous the closer he got.

Was she claustrophobic? Absolutely not. Well, maybe a little.

Did she deeply believe in having her own personal space? Heck yeah, she did. And this boy was getting dangerously close to bursting her personal bubble.

"Good. Now that we've gotten somewhere, what House did you get sorted into?" Ethan question just trying to be polite so as not to start an argument again, "I'm in Hufflepuff." He would have been more concerned for his sister, but right now, he had a feeling she'd be alright on her own.

"Excuse me?" Cloe asked in confusion, "What are you talking about? Sorting... and houses... I'm at Hogwarts, aren't I?" At least, she _thought_ that's where she was. Why were they asking about what kind of house she was living in? Weren't they all living in this castle thing?

"Yeah... but you do know that there are 4 different houses you can get sorted into. There's Slytherin, where my sister got sorted into. You know her; she's the one you threw across the room. There's Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and then there's Gryffindor," he explained, wondering why she was being so evasive, "Which one are you in?"

She stared at him flabbergasted. "I'm not... _sorted_... into any of those places. This strange Mason dude kinda just ditched me after he found me on the train, so I came down here... and had a little fun," she stated, giggling again at the fact that he was covered in the food she'd sent up there.

"So, you missed the sorting ceremony. That means we'll just have to get you sorted," he replied thoughtfully, "Come on... let's go upstairs to the Great Hall and get the Sorting Hat."

So, this Mason was making friends already and ditching them to do who-knows-what, but why did this guy seem to be attracted to people who seem to have some kind of issues with their life? Then again, it could just be some kind of coincidence; not that he believed in them.

"The _what_?" Cloe ask in confusion, but he started to come closer to her.

She quickly grabbed the notebook and stashed it underneath the back of her shirt so no one would find it; she wasn't giving up either of her prizes that easily. When he'd gotten close enough to her, she dropped the delicious apple she had been munching on, hardly noticing its sudden disappearance almost before it hit the ground **(Ryuk got hungry teehee)** as she was dragged away out the door.

"You're coming with me," she muttered to the other girl and grabbed her wrist, too, dragging her from the room as well as the boy pulled her away from her little friends.

Ethan finally let go of her wrist as soon as he was sure she was following. They kept walking until they found themselves just outside the Great Hall. "Here we are... Ladies first," he said, ushering them inside before quickly following.

~~~~~~ No one had really been paying attention to Mason's Greased Lightning moment, so he'd started to leave until Sharpay crashed into him, screaming as she was flung across the room. He ended up falling on the floor, his mask almost falling off in the process as she bumped into him. Sharpay landed back in the Great Hall with a bunch more food on her now ruined outfit. Turning to the kid she'd landed on, she looked at him curiously.

"Who are you?" she asked, not recognizing him under the mask.

"Umm... I'm John Travolta?" Mason tried, hoping she wouldn't stick around to ask questions.

"Yeah, right," Sharpay said, reaching over and pulling his mask off, gasping in slight shock, "Mason?"

Though she wasn't quite sure if it really was him or not, she noticed he looked sort of similar to the boy she had met earlier, except his hair and eyes were different colors; especially the eyes. Instead of being blue with green flecks in them, they were green with blue flecks. And the hair was just wacky. For all she knew, this kid could be Mason's almost identical brother… if he even had one.

"Who's Mason? I'm not Mason," Mason said, backing away from her as he made an invisible clone of himself, making him transform into his human form. **(Remember Mason is still in his ghost form.)** Silently, he made his clone walk into the room. "Hey, what's up with all the noise? I can hear you guys from the dorm?" he complained.

Sharpay turned to look at the boy who just walked into the room. If that was Mason, then who was…? "Oh, uh… Huh? Wh-where did he go?" she asked in confusion as she noticed the other kid wasn't there anymore. This was more confusing than she'd bargained for.

Mason had quickly turned invisible when Sharpay had turned her back on him and he flew into his clone, putting them back together. "Who? I don't see anyone," he asked her, acting confused as to why she was talking crazy.

"Uh, there was someone... Where did he go?" she just repeated, looking around, hoping to catch a glimpse of this mystery guy who looked oddly like the boy in front of her.

"I didn't see anyone else when I came in. Are you sure?" Mason asked her again, his voice full of doubt. Hopefully, she would forget about it and just move on.

"I... uh, never mind," she said, not wanting him to think she was nuts. Just then, it occurred to her that she was still covered in food and the one thing she'd wanted to avoid had happened anyway.

"Oh... well, ok, then... I'll just get back to dorm then. I guess I'll see you later," Mason stated awkwardly, turning around and taking a few steps out of the room, sighing in relief at how smoothly that went.

"Uh, wait," Sharpay called to him as she got down from the table and tried to remove as much of the food from her outfit as possible, brushing herself off and picking out the bits and pieces of chicken from small tangles in her hair.

"Hm?" Mason asked, turning to look at her once again.

"Do you want to, I don't know, maybe do something?" she quizzed hopefully as she did her best to approach him casually.

"Like what?" Mason asked, trying not to sound skeptical.

"Oh, a movie? Explore the castle? I dunno, whatever," Sharpay responded with a smile.

Mason yawned. "I dunno... Maybe later. I'm kind of tired and it's pretty late," he told her, glancing at his watch. It was 11:00 already. "Sorry," he apologized, noticing her look of disappointment. He was still going for the nice guy look and he didn't want to sound rude even though he wasn't in the mood to be bothered right now.

"Oh, well, um, alright," she said trying not to show just how disappointed she really was, "Hey, do you know where the Slytherin House is?" It had taken her all this time to realize she really had no idea where she was supposed to go. Maybe he'd seen it on his way to his House.

"Oh, um, yeah, it's near Hufflepuff. I'll walk you there," he offered to sound polite, realizing why not, since he was heading that way anyway.

"Great," she enthused, taking Mason's arm and noticing her brother returning to the room, "See ya later, Ry." Well, the only real good thing about his fake name was it was so much easier to come up with a nickname for him than it was to find one for his real name.

"Um, ok?" Mason stated, looking at her funny as she grabbed onto his arm, "Let's go then." He began to lead her to the Slytherin common room.

"How do you get yourself into these messes, Mason?" Ryuk laughed in amusement, receiving a glare from the brunette in return. Mason decided it would be best just to ignore him and keep walking. It wasn't like anyone else could see or hear the annoying winged man besides him. None of them had the Death Note.

**(A/N) Ooh… what could Mason be planning? He sure looks uncomfortable at the moment. Ah, well… Jude's a genius, I guess. XD Hmm… so, now what do you think will happen next?**

**Originally going into the kitchen for apples, he comes out with a whole other problem – one huge juicy apple of problems! Meanwhile, Genevieve finds her way to the Great Hall and kitchen looking for her notebook and she leaves both rooms with the same confused thoughts and conflicts. And of course, the twins went to the kitchen to post a complaint and figure out what was going on; they came back covered in more food and definitely asking more questions than when they went in. Woot! And of course, Ryuk gets all the apples. If that's not apples to apples, then I really don't know what it is. **

**So, all you peeps and more just please review for me and let me know if I did a good job of piecing this rp together into a story or if you think I really completely butchered it. I need to know. So, hopefully I'll get good replies. My eyes by now are almost completely dulled only slightly by sifting through all this info and placing it in the correct order. I can't remember an rp I've been in that's been more unorganized (in spite my hours of effort prior to starting just to prepare everything and get it all laid out in one straightforward and pretty piece of detailed information).**

**So, leave me reviews! Luv ya, peeps! Huggles! You know you're awesome! 3**

**EDIT:**

**Ugh… Again, it's getting later at night as I read through all this and I somehow managed to pick up on the corrections that needed to be made. =/ It's all the same stuff as before: I fixed a few grammatical errors, corrected the formatting, tweaked a few words in the narration, and weeded out any spelling errors there might have been. Nothing big and important really.**

_**Original**__** post:**_ 10/8/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/23/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	5. The Sorting Hat

**Chapter 5: The Sorting Hat**

Somehow managing to have gotten herself separated from the rest of the first year groups, a tall girl stood in the halls, trying to figure out what to do next. Her bronze hair fell in ringlets around her face and shoulders. _'Wow,'_ she thought to herself, _'Hybrid vampire and witch. I can't believe I am at Hogwarts!'_

When her parents had noticed her uncanny and definitely unexplainable ability to make objects float and soar across rooms without even touching them, they had first assumed it was another part of her special vampire gift. But even she knew her gifts could only go so far. She was pretty much born with the ability to project her thoughts into other peoples' minds by just touching a hand to their face. She had even been surprised herself when one day her pillow flew across her room to her when she was too tired to go retrieve it.

Then, things started exploding around the house whenever she was frustrated. Though that was normal for some vampires, it most definitely was not normal for a vampire with her original ability. That was when her parents discovered Hogwarts through the 'internet'… or at least that's what they told her. But now she was finally here, excited as ever. All she had to do was open the doors into the Great Hall. And she was stalling... stupid nerves_. 'Deep breaths,'_ she told herself and slowly pushed the doors open.

'_Oh my gosh. The ceiling looks like the outside sky! That's so cool,'_ she mused to herself as she took in her surroundings. Glancing over, she noticed the few people around, but she didn't want to look stupid and ask where Gryffindor commons was. So, she just waited there, hoping that maybe one of them would notice and talk to her after a while. _'Why do I feel like someone's following me?' _she inwardly stated, getting a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, _'Ugh. Nerves again...'_

Cloe turned around and noticed the girl in the room with her... and the rest of the group. Just barely excusing herself for a minute, she went over to her. The girl looked like she was an adult, but that could mean anything. If there was one thing she'd learned, it was never to trust what your eyes see; nothing is as it appears to be. She could still very possibly be a teacher here. If that was true, she'd have to use her persuasive skills to get them out of trouble for being in here without supervision or whatever it was.

"Hi," Cloe said to the girl, trying to sound polite, "Um... do you teach here?"

The girl looked at her partially in relief that someone had noticed her. Wow… Did that blonde girl really think she looked that old? "No," the bronze-haired beauty said, trying not to pull the sheepish face her mom always pulled when she was caught, "I'm Renesmee or Nessie for short and I'm a new student here. I'm 11 and in Gryffindor."

'_Wow, she's huge!'_ Cloe thought, trying hard not to let her jaw drop in surprise. She'd been told so many times by her mum that it wasn't lady-like, not like she could care less, and it was no way to greet someone. She could sense the new girl's discomfort, but she seemed harmless, so Cloe decided she'd try to be nice. Who knew? Something good might come out of it.

"Well, uh... I'm Cloe," she introduced herself, "If you want, I can walk with you to your house... if that's what they call it here. We can explore the castle a little bit while finding it. I'm a very curious creature you know." She smiled sweetly, trying not to scare her.

Nessie wondered if this Cloe girl knew how close to a creature she actually came. _'She seems nice, thank Carlisle!'_ She was just as grateful that she hadn't run into one of those pushy kids who were so determined to look cool in front of their friends that they'd scare the new kids just to make their group laugh. She swore she heard someone sigh in relief really quietly behind her. _'Whatever,'_ she thought, deciding to ignore it.

"Thanks! That would be great!"

'_Ugh. I even sound 21,'_ she inwardly groaned at that before realizing something, _'Ha! I'm 4 years older than my dad and 3 years older than my mom.'_ That thought made her happy inside.

"Okay, then," Cloe replied before shouting back to everyone else, "Um... I'll be right back. I just have to help Renesmee get back to her house and then I'll come back here to get sorted or whatever it was you guys are planning. Wait for me or I might have to have a 'chat' with you later about following me around." Not that she cared what the others thought; she just needed an excuse to keep them in one place until she finally got back.

She turned back to Nessie, glad she had someone to reason with. "So, let's go, then," Cloe tried her best to enthuse as they headed on their way down the hall and she picked a random direction to go in, "So, you sure you're not an adult? You sure do seem like one... unless you're just one of those really amazing mature people I'm having trouble finding in this place."

"I guess amazingly mature." Nessie blushed.

'_Ahh, the things you inherit from your mom,'_ she thought to herself.

"Call me Nessie or Ness, though. Everyone does. So, what House are you in?" She cast the girl one of her dad's famous smiles.

'_Ugh! I still have that stalker feeling!'_ she complained to herself, unable to shake the strange feeling that seemed to follow her everywhere since she'd been dropped off here, _'Maybe I'm going paranoid like my Uncle Jasper when he met my mom...'_

"Okay, then, Nessie. It's nice to meet someone I can finally look up to... literally," Cloe stated with a huge grin, "Actually, I kinda missed the whole ceremony thingy that places you in some house in the first place. So, I don't belong anywhere here... except the kitchen with my other friend, Dobby. He's a little person." She was already starting to feel homesick for the kitchen she so desperately wanted to remain in for however long it took her to figure out where to go, though she was sure she had to leave soon because the last thing she wanted was for those hunters to threaten her new friends.

"You must belong here somewhere. Maybe the headmaster can help you figure it out. And what do you mean little person?" Nessie chuckled at the blonde girl's final statement.

'_I know a lot of little people like my mom and Aunt Alice,'_ she laughed to herself in amusement.

"Well, he's really tiny. I mean, smaller than me. But he's cool." Cloe nodded and shrugged at the same time, though she bet she looked like a dweeb doing that. "And those two strangers back there were going to try to get me sorted into some house with some kind of... hat? I'm not sure what the deal is, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like it." What kind of world was this where hats controlled your life? A twisted one, she was sure.

"Oh. That hat sorts you into Houses. Don't worry about it," Nessie tried to make the girl feel better about it, remembering how nervous and confused she had been when they'd plopped the Sorting Hat on her head and heard it talk to her. She remembered most of the characteristics of each of the Houses and silently tried to figure out which one Cloe would end up getting sorted into. She kind of hoped she'd end up in Gryffindor with her so she'd at least have a friend there.

"Thanks," Cloe stated as more questions about that hat thing started to tug at her curiosity, "Hey, do you want to help me retrieve a little something really quickly?" She couldn't take it anymore. This errand had just been pushed to the top of her list of things to do and part of her was glad Nessie was there to come along for the ride.

"Sure, I've got time." Nessie laughed, wondering what this quick-minded girl could possibly have needed to retrieve. She figured it would be best not to ask in case the girl got defensive about privacy or something to that extent.

"Great." Cloe smiled more of to herself than to anyone else. "Now, all I need you to do is cover me while I get something." She wasn't going to tell her what in case she said no... and she really wanted a looksy at that hat; it sounded very interesting. Plus... how else was she supposed to get sorted or whatever it was called if she didn't have that dang gum hat?

'_I bet it's in the headmaster's office,'_ she concluded, _'It's always in the headmaster's office.'_

"Cover you? Yeah, sure, okay," Nessie said partly confused as to what this girl was planning on doing.

'_No, Ness, she's planning on taking that hat,'_ a strangely familiar, soft voice spoke up. It was a strangely similar pitch to the voice in the Sorting Hat, but she highly doubted that hat was stalking her.

'_Ok, now I'm hearing really weird voices that sound like my dad,'_ she stated, realizing why the voice seemed so familiar, _'Why me?'_ She was willing to bet this sort of thing didn't happen to Cloe or any of her little friends. Then again, they were at Hogwarts, where anything could happen.

Cloe paused for just a fraction of a second as her ears perked a bit to listen. "Did you hear something?" she asked curiously, knowing she wasn't crazy just yet. Positive she'd heard a slight voice, she tried to figure out where it had come from, but for some reason she couldn't exactly place it; it was almost like a thought.

"Umm, I thought I did," Nessie replied, not wanting to say it sounded like her dad talking in his "vampire voice". She had a nagging feeling that it wouldn't have gone over all that well.

"Hmm... do you think we're being followed?" Cloe asked starting to become paranoid again as they headed in another random direction.

'_My sense of direction is outstanding today,'_ she praised herself, realizing it must have come from her month out in the wild as a wolf while she was running from those hunters. She just hoped this school was protected enough so they wouldn't be able to find her, unless of course they already had and were following her right now.

"I had the feeling I have been all day," Nessie began to get paranoid and from the looks of it, so was Cloe. Just the thought that she was being stalked did not bode well with her.

'_Don't worry, Ness, just don't help her steal it,' _the creepy voice was quieter this time.

"Yeah? Me too," Cloe agreed, feeling slightly lower to the ground in case she needed to sniff something out or make a run for it to morph. Remarkably, she found their way so they were just around the corner to the office. "Hey... you can wait here and take watch. If anyone comes, make a noise or something and then run. You don't have to wait for me... I can take care of myself. So, just wait here and make sure no one sees me," she quickly explained, glancing around as she started to head towards the office, but suddenly turned back, "Oh, and whatever you do... don't look back at me. If you do... well, let's just say that I can't say what the outcome might be. So, please do us both a favor and don't look back. No matter how curious you get."

This was starting to sound bad. "You're not going to do anything bad are you?" Nessie ask warily. If she'd gotten herself mixed up with a seemingly nice convict of some sort, she wouldn't be surprised. But there was no way the blonde girl was evil like that. She just… didn't seem like it.

'_She is, Nessie! Get out of there.' _At least the vampiric crazy voice decided to go back to hearing volume. Maybe Cloe could hear it this time.

"Of course not," Cloe assured her new friend, serious this time, "Just please don't look and tell that strange voice to keep it down. I can barely hear my own thoughts." All she wanted was the hat... She didn't really have to _do_ anything to get it either.

"Ok," Nessie answered, looking around frantically, partially to see if the coast was clear and more importantly to find out where that strange voice was coming from.

Cloe sighed as she walked towards the office and set to work. Making sure Nessie wasn't watching, she calmed herself down and closed her eyes, concentrating on what she wanted. When she was done, she stuffed the hat in her pocket, managing to hide it rather well. Returning to where she'd left Nessie, she smiled and nodded. "Thanks," she told the girl, "Let's go."

~~~~~~ "So, are you excited to be at Hogwarts?" Sharpay asked Mason, who looked over at her.

"Yeah," he lied, fake happiness thick in his voice. All he wanted to do was get this over with and return to his room.

"Yeah, I'm so excited," Sharpay trilled, smiling brilliantly, her blonde curls bouncing slightly with each step, "I'm a witch, ya know. What are you?" She looked at him, her brown eyes sparkling slightly with excitement. She really thought she was getting somewhere in the relationship she was trying to construct with Mason.

"I'm a wizard," Mason lied, carefully trying hard to keep his own thoughts contained.

'_And a ghost, oh, and, by the way, I'm a serial killer, too,"_ he added sarcastically, causing Ryuk to cackle at his inward comment.

"Oh, cool," Sharpay said in the most flirtatious tone she could come up with. For an eleven-year-old, she had to admit she was pretty good at this kind of stuff.

Mason rolled his eyes at her, making sure she couldn't see it. "We're here," he told her in relief, stopping outside the Slytherin House entrance.

"Ok, great, thanks... I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Sharpay stated, reaching over and kissing him on the cheek.

"Um, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," Mason replied, plastering a fake smile on his face and walking away, trying to ignore Ryuk, who was cracking up. When he was sure they were out of her view, Mason wiped his face in disgust. "Eww," he complained, shaking his head at how annoyed he felt at the moment. When they reached the Hufflepuff common room, he sat at one of the empty desks.

The room was mostly empty, save a few students saying their goodnights and heading to their dorms. When the last of them had gone to bed, bleary-eyed and yawning, he took his Death Note from his bag. Man, this day just got weirder and weirder. As he went to grab his iPod so he could listen to the radio on it, he realized he couldn't find it.

'_Oh, well, I'll look for it later,"_ he decided and turned on the TV instead, watching news reports and writing down criminals' names in his Death Note. As he got more and more into it, he could feel his eyes turning blood red as his expression got darker. He had to kill someone, he was desperate by now. Hanging around a bunch of weirdoes all day could do that to a person.

After Mason had left, Sharpay tried to get into her house, but it kept asking her for a password. What password? No one had told her about any password. So, she was stuck until she could figure out what it was and she didn't think someone would just open the door for her or however you were supposed to get into these rooms. Crossing her arms, she tried to think what kind of password might be accepted.

When Mason was done, he leaned back in his chair and closed his notebook. "That felt so good, Ryuk. You don't even know," he said sleepily.

"Hee Hee. Good work, Mason," Ryuk said, chuckling as the brunette put away the notebook before heading off to bed.

"G'night, Ryuk," he stated, his evil smile returning.

"Good night, foolish human," Ryuk replied with more of his evil laughter.

**(A/N) Hey, pplz! So, what's up? Ooh… dra-ma. Huh? Like it? Guess what? Mason uses his evil powers for good! WOOT! Yeah, that's one of those _aww_ moments, right? Of course. I mean, seriously… underneath all that boyish charm lies a darkened soul with good in it. _Aww._Come on everyone _aww_ with me. _Aww._ All together now. _Aww._ Very good. You deserve a round of applause from the peanut gallery.**

**Claps.**

**Well, anywhose… More's coming soon. Reviews pwease. Come on, you know you want to. Bad year, need reviews, they make it better, niceness pwease, unfortunate flames are accepted. Hop to it, pretty pretty plz. XD**

**Luvers ya, peeps! Huggles! 3**

**EDIT:**

**Gee, this was a pretty cute chapter. XD Heheh… I forgot how much fun this roleplay was. =) Well, anyway… I didn't really do much to the chapter edit-wise. Pretty much the same stuff: I fixed grammatical errors, corrected the formatting, tweaked a few words in the narration, and weeded out any spelling errors there might have been.**

_**Original**__** post:**_ 10/8/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/23/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	6. Secrets Revealed

**Chapter 6: Secrets Revealed**

Before Ethan even had a chance to respond to the blonde girl, she was gone with some other girl. He thought he'd seen something following them, but quickly decided it was better to stay with the other girl and wait for Cloe to get back so they could figure out how to sort her.

"So, yeah..." he began to say to break the odd silence, "What's your name? I already said I'm Ryan. And I'm sorry if our conversation in the kitchen scared you. It scared me, too."

Genevieve snapped out of her gaze that followed the Cloe girl out the door. "Oh... I'm Genevieve. And don't worry, Ryan, I-I wasn't too scared, but thank you, though." She didn't think that was very convincing, though.

"You're welcome," he replied before it got awkward again.

They stood in silence for a moment before Genevieve spoke again. "That girl, Cloe, does she know that the Sorting Hat is in Professor Dumbledore's office and that she needs a password to get in there?" she questioned, sort of doubting boundaries could stop such a strangely fierce girl, "You don't think she'd try to break in, do you? She might get caught by a prefect or a teacher! She could get in a lot of trouble."

"A girl like that was probably born into a life of trouble," Ethan offered his opinion, realizing she had a point, "I mean, I don't know if she'd be... crazy enough to try breaking in though."

That worried the brunette girl a bit. "Do you think we should go find her?" she quizzed, glancing back to the door again.

"No. Bad idea," Ethan told her seriously, "We should just wait here. I'm sure she'll be back after she helps that girl to her House."

"Oh... alright..." If they were going to stay there waiting for the blonde girl to come back, Genevieve figured she might as well get to know this boy. "So… Ryan, right? What House are you in?"

"Hufflepuff. What about you?" Ethan asked to make friendly conversation for the time being. Anything to keep his mind off what kind of mischief the other girl was most likely getting herself and her new friend into.

"I'm in Ravenclaw," the brunette girl replied, "So, are you a first year, too?"

"Uh... yeah, I'm a first year... So is my sister, the blonde that Cloe threw across the room," he replied with a half-hearted smile as he removed a bit of the dessert from his hair, "When do you think she'll be back?" This place was kind of eerie at night when nobody was in it. There was only the light of the few candles or so that were still lit and of course the moonlight shining in through the windows.

"I hope she'll be back soon," Genevieve admitted, seeming to have the same idea. She looked up at the ceiling and stared at the sky above. It was actually quite calming and beautiful, but unnerving at the same time.

"Actually, I never thought I'd say that, but me, too," Ethan agreed, sitting down at one of the tables. He followed her gaze and sighed slightly, wondering what it was like back at home for his mom. Feeling the urge to fill the silence with words, he spoke up again, "So, tell me a bit about yourself. What are your hobbies?"

Genevieve looked at him in surprise; she hadn't expected this sort of thing to come up in their conversation, but went along with it anyway. "Oh… um… well, I'm a muggle-born. No one in my family's ever done magic before, so I've been spending the past few weeks reading everything I could about Hogwarts and magic. There's still so much to learn," she informed him as he looked over at her curiously, "I'm really excited though. I want to learn everything I can. What about you? I expect you must be more familiar with all of this than me."

Ethan sighed and looked away as he muttered, "More than you know." Memories of how his dad had tried to take over Halloweentown and how he had helped capture him in the witch's glass popped into the forefront of his mind. No matter how many times he tried to forget about what happened, something always brought him back to that horrible time in his life. His mind drifted to his sister and how he didn't want her to turn out the same way.

The one thing he didn't get was how she could have turned out so much like their dad, when he turned out a lot like their mom; complete opposites, it seemed. Pushing those thoughts out of his head, he remembered he was changing his life for a reason; he wasn't going back and no one could find out about his past. His biggest concern was that Sharpay might blow their cover... his cover... to that Mason guy. All she had done was change her last name to match his false one. He sighed deeply in confusion. Nothing in his life had made complete sense and he knew things weren't this simple. There was always a catch and he was positive the over-friendly brunette boy with the creepy eyes was waiting for the right time to make that catch known.

Genevieve thought she heard him mutter something under his breath before he looked away in deep thought. Part of her worried there might be something wrong and, though she thought she might be able to help him with it, decided she'd leave him be for a while. They were left in a deafening silence for almost a minute before she interrupted once again. "So… your family must have been doing magic for ages, then," she began to say, catching his attention, which she took as a good sign, "You must have hundreds of books and stories from ages ago."

'_It must be wonderful to have grown up with that knowledge right within your reach,'_ she thought to herself, wishing she'd had something like that to help her with her magic. Most of this she didn't understand, but she was determined to learn as much as she could possibly absorb.

"Try living it," Ethan replied, turning back to face her slowly, "There's actually a whole other side of magic that not that many witches and warlocks know about. The sad thing is... that most of us lived it. We were there." He forced himself not to think about his naivety when that same thing had happened with his dad's unforeseen betrayal.

"What do you mean?" Genevieve had heard of dark witches and wizards and knew of some of the things they'd done. But she also knew that the last of the dark wizards had been captured many years ago. Could it be possible that a new generation of these people were on the rise again? She had no idea what to expect, so she waited with bated breaths for his answer.

"Well, as I've heard, there is a new more evil wizard out there right now," he informed her thoughtfully, not wanting to tell her about his father, "He's been messing with the time stream and I'm guessing that's where the new teachers came from." Those elves, or whatever Dumbledore had said they were, definitely didn't seem like they were from anywhere he'd ever been. It must have been part of the evil wizard's plan.

"Really? Messing with the time stream?" the brunette girl asked him in shock, realizing his deduction about the new teachers made sense, "Do you know anything else about this wizard? Who he is? Where he came from? What his purpose is?"

"You... ask a lot of questions," Ethan told her nervously, beginning to get uncomfortable with all the prodding, "All I know about this guy is that everyone's scared to say his name; nobody really knows where he came from or what he intends to do. Why do you want to know so much?"

Genevieve looked down and blushed. "Sorry," she apologized, "I do ask a lot of questions too much. I just can't help it. Like I said, I want to learn everything I can." She glanced at the door wondering when Cloe would be coming back. "I wish there was something we could do to stop this evil wizard, though."

"It's okay," he told her, a small smile forming on his pale face, "I can be like that sometimes, too." What he didn't want to tell her was that there _was_ a way to stop that evil wizard… and he knew it. It wasn't like he didn't want to help; he was more afraid she'd ask him how he knew, which would most definitely lead into an explanation about who he really was. And most importantly, he didn't want to tell her that _he_ had to stop him or that that was part of the reason he had agreed to go to school here.

But he needed help; help Sharpay wouldn't give him. She'd told him she had better things to do than play hero for a day. And if this girl really wanted to help so badly, he might be able to trust her. No, he'd just have to wait and see how things went between them. It would take more than just this one girl to convince him he was ready to take on the world's supposedly most powerful dark wizard out there.

Genevieve sighed, looking back up at the ceiling again. "Well, this has been quite an interesting day. I never thought that when I came here I would meet any of you like this," she mused over the events of the past few minutes or so, "And all because I lost my notebook. Funny how things like this happen."

"Yeah... funny how one moment everything can seem so nice and perfect, then all at once it changes," Ethan said more of to himself than her as he watched the stars twinkle above them, "Sometimes for the worse."

She stared at him, wondering what he meant by that. "Has anything like that ever happened to you?" The moment the words were out of her mouth, she realized that probably wasn't the best thing to ask the rather jittery boy. "I'm sorry. That was wrong to ask. I don't mean to be rude or nosey; I was just wondering."

Ethan looked at her abruptly, having not expected her to ask him such a question. "Oh... I... well, hasn't it happened to everyone?" he stated as casually as possible, trying not to act suspicious, "I mean, you've had days where things don't make sense, haven't you? Well, that's pretty much my life. Everything used to be fine until... it changed. Now, I'm just trying to do what_ I_ need to do instead of what everyone else needs me to do." He shook his head remembering his dad. Everything seemed to remind him of Edgar Dalloway.

"Oh, yes, I understand." Still, something seemed a bit strange to her; it seemed like he had something important to hide. Spite her curiosity, she reminded herself it wasn't really any of her business, so she didn't bring it up again.

He sighed, glad she'd dropped the subject. Now he could clear his head and just think to himself while they waited for Cloe to get back.

~~~~~~ Sharpay screamed in frustration. She had no idea how to get in to this place. She'd tried everything from her name to what they'd eaten for dinner, but the stupid statue thing wouldn't let her in. "Somebody help?" she yelled, practically pleaded to anyone who might be able to hear her. Gah! If Ethan were here, he'd know what to do.

Cloe turned another corner, Nessie following closely as they tried to find the Gryffindor House. A scream stopped them in their tracks. "Oh, no!" the green-eyed blonde groaned in realization. She knew that scream anywhere... It was that witch again from the kitchen, the one she threw across the room. As they kept walking, she noticed the witch was stressed and from the looks of it, had been calling for help.

'_No wonder my instincts brought me here,' _she thought to herself, _'I'm not heartless.'_

Turning to Nessie, she sighed as she saw the expression on her new friend's face. "I think she needs our help. Do you mind?" Cloe asked just to make sure she wasn't keeping her from anything important, "It'll just take a second or two."

"No. I like to help people," Nessie replied with a smile.

'_Cloe seems really nice and cool,'_ she thought to herself. There was no way a girl like that could get herself into as big an amount of trouble as stealing something from the headmaster of their new school.

'_Ness, you're on your own for less than a day and you find friends. Even though she stole that hat!' _the voice came back again.

'_Ok... I can handle the creepy voices as well as the next person, but my voice is annoying and accusing. I mean, come on!'_ she noted how unfair that was.

"Hmm... Can't get your way into your little house?" Cloe teased the annoying blonde witch as they approached.

Sharpay turned around upon hearing the familiar voice. "What do you want?" she demanded, folding her arms across her chest even tighter, "Come to fling me across the room again?"

"Hmm... I might consider it, but I won't have to if you keep your mouth shut instead of challenging someone before you get to know them," Cloe decided to leave it at that before getting to the point and rephrasing her original question, "So, I see you're stuck outside of your... uh... house. Need any help getting inside?"

"And how can you get inside...? It keeps asking for a password," Sharpay snapped stubbornly.

Cloe smirked. "Don't underestimate me," she informed the girl, taking a step closer to her, "I have my ways."

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Be my guest." She motioned towards the statue that refused to let her into her House so she could just go to sleep and forget about this whole incident.

"I would _love_ to," Cloe enthused, walking up to the supposed entrance, "Would you mind turning around and looking the other way?" Nessie already knew the drill, so she didn't need to ask the friendly girl twice. _'No one and I mean no one, but me is supposed to see what I'm about to do,' _the green-eyed blonde thought to herself, waiting for the witch to follow through and look away.

"And why would I do that?" she asked, cocking her head to the side expectantly, "I want to see this."

"If you value everything you have left of you, you'll do as I say," Cloe warned, not wanting to get into a fight in front of Nessie, who remained silent through the entire conversation as if something was distracting her.

"What could you do to me?" Sharpay quizzed, placing her hands on her hips. She gave the other girl a skeptical look, wondering if the blonde was what she claimed she was. Something about her just screamed poser.

"A lot of things, girl. More than you know," Cloe answered, not even bothering to remember the weird girl's name.

"Oh, yeah, like what?" Sharpay persisted, even more stubborn than before.

Cloe gave her a hard look, debating whether or not to actually answer her. "Trust me. I'm more capable of doing worse things," she began to explain, "Things no one should be able to do. Things nobody should have to be on the receiving end of. Not even people like you."

"Well, why can't you show me how to get in so that I know in the future," Sharpay pointed out in frustration.

"Because... what I'm about to do is something you _can't_ do," Cloe said simply, tiring of this battle of witty replies that wasn't getting them anywhere, "I'm the only one so far... and I don't think I can teach you how to. And even if I could, why would I want to?"

"Show me anyway," Sharpay instructed, more curious than she had been to start with. It must be something extremely crazy if this girl was reluctant to show anyone… That is… if she had anything to begin with.

"I can't show you anything," Cloe finally snapped, getting aggressive now, being protective of her secret, "Do you want to get into your House or not?"

"Fine," Sharpay sighed as she turned around.

'_Good,'_ Cloe thought, seeing that they'd both turned around.

At that, she took a breath and let her magic do the work. Facing the entrance to the Slytherin house, she concentrated on getting it to open. She heard the sound of the statue moving out of the way and looked over to see a large portion of the wall was now leading into the common room.

"There," she said, satisfied, if not a bit drained from her efforts, "You're in. Next time, ask someone for whatever kind of password is required to get in there. Now, come on, Nessie, let's get you back to Gryffindor." With that, she left the blonde girl to stare in shock as they walked away from her.

'_Okay?'_ Nessie followed her new friend in partial confusion, still having the feeling like they were being followed. She hated having to watch her back all the time. It made her feel unsafe, so she stayed close to her new small blonde friend.

As soon as they were out of earshot of that other girl, Cloe looked up at Nessie. "You sure you didn't look at what I was doing?" she asked to make sure, "And are you sure about that girl? She didn't look either did she?"

"No. I was just keeping watch, and don't worry, I'm sure the other girl didn't see anything," was Nessie's reply, though she'd been kind of concerned as to why the voice kept accusing her.

"Thanks," Cloe said gratefully as they kept walking, "One more thing... Did you hear that voice again? Do you think whoever is following us saw what I did?" As the seriousness of that situation started to sink in, she began to panic even more. They could be the people out to kill her. Those hunters.

"I heard that voice again, too. It sounds very familiar," Nessie admitted, though she didn't want to say how familiar.

Cloe looked at her in surprise. "You know who it is?" she questioned astounded.

'_Is she really my friend or is she against me, too?' _she wondered, biting her lip slightly as she hoped she was just overreacting.

Nessie had been the best friend to her in a long while and anything to ruin that would hurt her more than the time she'd fallen down the stairs and hit her head on the post below. Unfortunately, the post had made a gash in her forehead, which explained the small scar she carefully covered with her blonde bangs, though in the right light, her scar shined brightly.

Nessie blushed; she hated blushing. "I... uhhhh... thought it sounded like my overprotective dad," she was fully embarrassed. Cloe probably thought she was crazy.

"Really?" the blonde asked curiously, starting to feel a bit better about the situation, "Do you think he followed you here?"

Parents had been known to follow their children to school on their first day or so just to make sure they were alright. Things like that happened a lot back at home in Halloweentown. Silently, she wished her mom had been able to follow her here like she had on her first day of kindergarten, though she'd been embarrassed and annoyed at the time. Unfortunately, her mom probably had no idea where she was. Then again, _she_ didn't even know where she was. All she could imagine was her parents turning over all of Halloweentown trying to find her.

"He better not have!" Nessie began, looking around quickly. She had to keep reminding herself not to move too fast because there was a human present.

"Hold on," Cloe whispered, stopping abruptly, getting low to the ground for a minute. Her ears perked up a bit as she listened, having heard the slightest sound behind them. Whatever it was didn't have a heartbeat, but there was definitely something there. "Someone's here," she told her friend quietly. She could smell them... just barely.

'_Oh no,'_ Edward thought to himself where he was hiding in the shadows, making himself practically invisible, _'This Cloe person can't be a person if she smells me. Ness can't even smell me because I hide my scent so well.'_ He had a feeling this was going to get interesting.

"What does this person smell like?" Nessie stated, noticing the way her friend was sniffing at the air. She continued glancing around quickly, trying to catch sight of whatever it was that was following them. If Cloe could tell her exactly what she smelled, she might be able to explain to her what it was.

"How did you know I could smell them?" she asked worriedly, but went on to explain anyway, "It burns my nose just slightly. It's sweet. And now that I think of it, it smells a lot stronger than you do. It's like it's the same scent, but yours is dulled." Then she realized something. That was the scent of the hunters who were after her. "Oh, no... It's them," she muttered, looking for a quick way she could escape if necessary.

"What are you so worried about? I know you were smelling cause you started sniffing," Nessie answered, trying her best to be calm so as not to give Cloe anymore reason to be nervous, "I don't know who it is... Wait, if you can smell scents... what are you?"

'_She can't be human; not if she can smell scents and hear soft sounds clearly like I can,'_ she figured to herself. Maybe there was more to her friend's story than she was letting on.

"I'm not exactly... human," Cloe told her, slowly but surely straightening up, not sure if she could trust Nessie with her secret, "or wizard. It's... complicated. But what about you? You can hear that really quiet voice, too. So, what does that make you?" She continued walking forward carefully, motioning for Nessie to follow.

"Uh…" Nessie looked at the floor, "a hybrid." That was all she could say to sum it up at the moment.

"Of what?" Cloe asked curiously, continuing to walk, quickly turning a corner when her instincts told her to, "I'm sorta... a... um... it's like a dog." What was the best way to explain this?

"Wait... are you a," Nessie dropped her voice, "werewolf? My best friend is, you know. And I am a hybrid half-human half-vampire type thing. Yes, I'm a freak of inhumanity." She sighed; she knew Nahuel was different, too, but she felt lonely in that aspect here at Hogwarts.

Cloe nodded, feeling a bit more comfortable with Nessie's honesty. "Yeah... I sorta am. I'm not exactly like a real werewolf though. I'm more of what some people call a true werewolf. I can control when I morph, but I'm strongest on the nights of the full moon, when I _have_ to morph. Maybe you can help me with that. I guess that's what I get for having a werewolf for a mum and warlock for a dad," she responded carefully so as not to give anything else away that might ruin what she had going, then remembered when Nessie had spoken about friends, "Oh, um... do you mind going back to the Great Hall with me? I kinda have to finish something someone started."

'_Why do I have to get sorted?'_ she grumbled to herself, feeling the hat still in her pocket, _'It's not like I belong here.'_

"Sure, I'll go back with you. My best friend, Jacob, is kinda like that, too. He doesn't have to phase at the full moon, but he can whenever he wants to," Nessie said, glad there weren't any secrets between them anymore. Maybe she could actually have a close girl for a friend, too.

'_That'd be_ sooooo _much better than just aunts and a mom to talk to,'_ she realized to herself with a smile.

"Great," Cloe said with a slight smile as she turned another corner, still on look out for anything following them, "You know, you're okay. I'd expected you to be a bit more... different."

"What do you mean different?" Nessie was confuzzled. Had Cloe met someone like her before? That might explain why she was so antsy.

"Well, it's just that, I'm afraid that I haven't had a very good encounter with the kind of thing that's following us. I don't exactly know what it is that's following us though, but you said it might be your dad," Cloe rambled as they kept walking, "So, whatever he is, that's what's been following me lately. Except there were more of them and they wanted to kill me. I lost them in the human world." And by human world, she meant wherever she was before she got on the train to come here.

"More of...? Vampires? Like the Volturi," Nessie said basically inaudibly. Visible shivers ran down her spine upon saying their name; Cloe had to have noticed.

"You know them?" Cloe asked, realizing they were more trouble than she had originally thought, "Are they after more than just me?" If these… Volturi vampires, or whatever they were, made Nessie shiver like that, then they had to have done something serious to make her that nervous.

~~~~~~ Sharpay shook her head as she slowly entered her House, the entrance finally closing behind her, after a long while of thought. That girl didn't know it, but she had peeked and what she saw was, wow. She didn't know anybody could do that.

'_What is this girl?'_ she thought as she wandered into her dorm-type room and sat on the bed as she started thinking.

**(A/N) Okay, so I have to admit, that was a surprising twist. But hey… it's a dra-ma-tic roleplay we've got going here. Come on… tell me you didn't see that one coming. I didn't even see that one coming. But yesh, leave me loads of reviews to make my bad year turn good again. Thank my peeps for their dedication. Luvs yas, peeps! Huggles! 3**

**EDIT:**

**Eek… It's 11:57 at night… *dies* Geez, I've really put a lot into this editing business… =/ Maybe it'll prove to be worth it at some point.**

**So, basically the same edits were made. Nothing huge or all that important: I fixed grammatical errors, corrected the formatting, tweaked a few words in the narration, and weeded out any spelling errors or unnecessary words there might have been.**

_**Original**__** post:**_ 10/8/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/23/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	7. Sorting Cloe

**Chapter 7: Sorting Cloe**

Cloe realized they were already at the Great Hall before Nessie could answer her question. "You can tell me later," she told her quickly as they walked into the room. Though she was curious to learn more about these strange vampire people chasing her, she was more eager to get this sorting thing over with.

"So, when are we going to get this sorting thing over and done with?" she demanded, stopping in front of the other two.

Genevieve looked up when the Cloe girl returned. From what she could remember, the girl wanted to be sorted. "We can do that right now if you want. Here, sit down," she stood up to offer her a seat and the blonde reluctantly sat down, "Uh, Cloe? How did you get the Sorting Hat?"

Cloe looked down to see the tip of the hat sticking out of her pocket. "Oh... that..." she said, almost forgetting she had taken it in the excitement, "Um... it just kinda came to me."

"You didn't steal it from Dumbledore's office, did you?" Ethan asked, realizing she must have, otherwise she wouldn't have it. He quietly wondered what kind of person she was if she could break into the headmaster's office successfully without any teachers searching for her.

Genevieve knew if they kept bickering, someone would catch them. "Never mind, let's get her sorted now and ask questions later," she stated, taking the hat and placing it on the girl's head.

Nessie watched the scene in front of her from where she stood next to her friend, not sure of what to make of the situation. Just as soon as the hat was pulled down over Cloe's head, it shot back up in protest and flew around the room, landing at her feet motionless.

"What just happened? Was it supposed to do that?" Cloe asked a bit worried.

Nessie took a deep breath. She had to feel sorry for the poor hat having to be placed on so many peoples' heads over the years. Sadly, she feared its days of sorting students might have come to an abrupt end.

"I think you killed it," Ethan told the blonde simply.

Cloe knelt down next to it and began to poke it curiously. "You can't kill a hat," she said matter-of-factly.

'_You couldn't, right?'_ she wondered, noticing it did look kind of dead… or rather lifeless.

"Well, this one can see into your head, so..." Ethan began, wondering how the headmaster would take it if he found out. They had to have a replacement for it, right? It wasn't like it was the only one of its kind. What would the school do if something like this was to happen? They'd have to have at least a back up plan.

Cloe paused to think about that. He had a very good point. "Yeah... I think I killed it," she concluded.

Genevieve looked from the hat lying on the floor in front of them back to the others. "Well… maybe it just couldn't decide. Maybe you have too much on your mind right now. We could always try again tomorrow," she suggested thoughtfully, "Until then, I think it would be best if you hid in someone's dorm just to be safe. If someone catches you, you could get in really big trouble." The girl might scare her, but she didn't want her to get in trouble for something that wasn't entirely her fault.

"Okay... so, whose dorm should I stay in tonight?" Cloe asked curiously, looking around at the other two. It seemed like they were shying away, so she sighed and shook her head slightly. "I'll just stay with Nessie in Gryffindor. I was going back there anyway," she said partly to spare them the trouble and partly so she could spend some more time with her new best friend.

"Alright. Where should we meet up tomorrow to try this again?" Genevieve tried hard not to make it look like she was that relieved not to provide any hospitality to the girl, though part of her doubted a sleep over with the blonde girl would be at all exciting. And more importantly, there had to be somewhere less dangerous at this school where they could figure out what House this Cloe girl belonged to. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner the girl could return the hat to where she found it.

"Wherever you guys want to meet," Cloe answered, picking up the hat and standing up once again, stretching slightly, "But I'm keeping this... thing." She looked at the old battered hat, wondering why it hadn't fallen apart by now.

"That's not such a good idea," Ethan tried to warn her, though she cut him off before he could explain.

"If I were you, I'd keep my mouth shut, boy," she snapped back at him before realizing she had to remain calm, "I mean... Ryan." There. Using his name would help to make herself seem calmer than she really was. As long as she could keep this up, she'd be able to get by for a while longer undetected.

"Why don't I keep it? And I'll meet you both tomorrow night by the lake at 10:00," Genevieve suggested for the sake of ending the oncoming argument before it started so they could all just go to bed, "Will you both be okay until then?"

"Nuh-uh! I'm not letting you take this hat! I got it in the first place and I won't let you guys take it away," Cloe strongly objected. If anything, this hat was going right underneath one of the beds she knew would be in the house things with that girl's notebook and weird kid's noisy iPod.

"But you stole it from Dumbledore's office," Ethan said accusingly.

"Not true. I didn't even have to go into the office," Cloe admitted, allowing herself some pride at her accomplishment.

Genevieve sighed, her brown eyes wary. Their constant battle would be endless unless someone stopped it. "Alright. Alright. Cloe... just keep the hat, but you can't let anyone find it," she told the girl, who shrugged like she hid things on a regular basis, "Tomorrow night, we'll all meet by the lake again and we'll try to get you sorted, but remember you can't be seen. If it's absolutely necessary for you to leave the common room, borrow someone's robe so you'll blend in."

Just then, a noise outside the Great Hall silenced them as they stared at the door like deer in the headlights. Whoever it was thankfully walked away. "We'd better get back to our common rooms," Ethan suggested, not wanting to continue risking his neck and getting them all caught. The others agreed, silently left the room, and went their separate ways.

'_I can't even imagine how the rest of the year will turn out,'_ Genevieve thought to herself, quite overwhelmed by her recent encounters at Hogwarts.

Cloe turned to Nessie as she led the half-vampire back to Gryffindor. "Um... you wouldn't mind if I borrowed one of your robes, would you?" she asked hopefully, not wanting to sound rude.

"Yeah, sure you can!" Nessie replied enthusiastically before saying the password to get into the House.

The painting of a rather large lady swung out of the way and they walked inside, heading into one of the big rooms. Nessie led Cloe into the bedrooms, which she overheard the others calling the girl's dormitory and the werewolf girl shook her head at what a strange place this was. Pictures following you in the halls, hats telling you where you belonged in life, and annoying people/pushy house guardians yelling at you for a password or else you won't be able to go to sleep in a warm bed at night; she could only get the feeling there was much worse things to come. When they made it to Nessie's apparent bed, the half-vampire handed her one of her blue robes.

"Thanks," Cloe stated as she held the robe out in front of her, shaking her head at it. It was so silly, she was embarrassed to have to wear it. After refusing a bed, she curled up on the floor and went to sleep, extremely tired from all the running.

**(A/N) So, what do ya think of this chappie? Pretty strange how the hat didn't want to sort Cloe, isn't it? Well, all that will be explained later on. And after that, you'll be so surprised at what happens with the next twist. Let's just say that both Mason and Cloe are in for an uber big surprise! And don't forget little Alphonse. Of course, he's still there. And I do have to say, he's in for the scare of his life. But that's all I can say.**

**Reviews pplz! I don't write for nothing. Besides the sheer joy of being able to make my readers hang on the edge of their seats in anticipation, I write for the fun of it and it would be greatly appreciated if you would at least write a sentence about what you thought.**

**So, let us know. My peeps and I are waiting patiently. Luv ya, peeps! WOOT! You ROCK, you silly Goofy Goobers. XD Huggles! 3**

**EDIT:**

**Oh, goodness… It's now 12:16 in the morning as I finish typing my edits for the night… and I really should get to sleep due to the fact that I have school in several hours. Lucky for me, my Monday class starts after 1pm. Heheh… XD College is a love-hate relationship.**

**So, yup. Same basic changes were made. A few tweaks here and there for grammar, spelling, and formatting. Nothing all that spectacular. *sigh***

**Well, I hope to get the next chapter posted soon… but I may have to just rewrite a load of it myself because… I lost quite a bit of the original roleplay when fanfiction decided it was new policy to delete all forums left for dead after nine months of being unused. And I couldn't save all the alerts from my email address… because the initial email account got deleted (I think). So, I may have to pry my peeps' minds to see if they remember what they wrote… or if they'd like to rewrite it again. O_o**

**Until then, my dear readers, this story is kinda… on standby. I apologize for the hold up. I'm trying to get the roleplay started up again. Maybe we'll just rewrite it from the point where I last collected data. XD Heheh… That sounds like a plan. And we get to introduce the new characters into the plot as well. *nods* Much more excitement awaits in the next chapters…**

**Stay tuned, viewers. It's an epic adventure you won't want to miss. ;D**

_**Original**__** Post:**_ 10/10/09

_**Revised:**_ 10/24/11

_**Reposted:**_ 10/30/11


	8. Another Mystery

**Chapter 8: Another Mystery**

"_Ugh_, leave me alone..." Mason muttered, hugging his pillow as one of the kids attempted to shake him awake.

The kid went on to tell him it was time for breakfast and how they didn't want to be late to the meal because their extra classes started right afterwards. Mason groaned, slowly pulling himself up out of the bed to get dressed all the while trying so hard not to snap at the kid. As he managed to pull on his normal clothes, he quickly decided to borrow that annoying kid's robe, since he kept nagging him.

'_Do you hear yourself talk? I might kill you tonight...' _he thought to himself in frustration. He was kidding about that last part though... sort of...

Putting on the strange-looking yellow robe, he left for the Great Hall where he found Cloe, Sharpay, and that Ryan kid, who'd been the _first_ person to bother him that morning. Glancing over, he noticed they were sitting with a short brown-eyed brunette girl. Before he even had the chance to wonder who she was, he caught sight of a really pretty girl whose bronze ringlet hair shown a golden brown color when the light hit it just right; he found himself almost entranced by her really pretty chocolate brown eyes, though the thing that threw him off was that she looked at least 21.

Sharpay noticed Mason walking towards them and smiled as she stood up, sauntering over to him. "Hey," she said to catch his attention, which seemed to work, since he looked over at her almost immediately.

Mason groaned upon hearing her voice. What a way to ruin the morning. "Um, hello, Sharpay," he said, slowly backing up towards the entrance again as he searched his mind for an excuse to get away. He looked over at the sign up sheets for their extra classes, so he decided it couldn't hurt. It was the perfect scapegoat anyway. "I gotta go... sign up for..." he began trailing off to check the sheet; noticing Sharpay, Ryan, and Cloe were in the archery class, he decided it best to avoid the three of them as much as possible, "Elven Language... Yeah... Elven Language... I'll see you later, then. Bye!" he stated, quickly signing his name on the sheet under Elven Languages/History and darting off in the opposite direction. He had no idea where he was going, but anywhere was better than there.

Cloe looked up at that Mason kid and sighed. They were all gathered in the Great Hall again for the morning breakfast. _'It's Saturday,'_ she reminded herself, _'Blah!'_ The weekend was supposed to be for sleeping in, but Nessie had woken her up early that morning so they wouldn't miss the meal. Cloe could have gone down to the kitchen, where she'd _rather_ be right at the moment, and sneak them some food for later, but _no_. The meal was not something Nessie had been willing to miss on her account and she'd said she wanted to sign up for these weird classes.

'_I'm not going to get anywhere here, am I?'_ the blonde pondered tiredly.

So, wearing that silly robe, she'd been forced to sign up for some extra classes. So… she'd decided to take Archery with Ryan and Genevieve and that language class she'd asked Nessie to join with her. Nessie hadn't signed up yet, but Cloe had sneaked the girl's name onto the list for her. That way, Nessie was ensured a spot while she satisfied her stomach with a much-deserved breakfast. Right now, Cloe wasn't in the mood to eat. Her stomach was still hurting from all that usage of her Void magic. If she wasn't careful, it could literally eat her. Moaning, she let her head fall on the table, where they'd all been sitting. And even though they were _supposed_ to be sitting at their House tables, they'd decided not to so they could all just "hang out".

'_Gag!'_ Cloe groaned to herself, feeling like her stomach had turned into a black hole.

Ethan watched his sister's attempt at flirting with Mason. Last night had been terrible; Mason's blue thing kept him awake all night long, so he'd had to wake the brunette boy up earlier that morning in order for him to get the creature off, since it apparently didn't know the meaning of the words _please_ and _get_ and _off_ and _now_; emphasis on _now_. It had continued to stare at him, sticking out its tongue to top off being annoying. Ethan had barely gotten anything done so far. Unpacking didn't go too well, since the blue creature wouldn't get off his luggage and he'd had to wrestle his pajamas from it. Sighing, he turned to Genevieve.

"I can't wait for this day to be over," he muttered to her, knowing she'd understand. He'd signed up for that archery class because it sounded interesting and pretty fun, but he was mostly afraid that Mason would sign up for it, too... Then they would be in the same class... _all_ of them.

'_Oh, no.'_ He just prayed that not everyone would take archery. At least he knew he'd be in the same class as Genevieve, which made it better because she was nice, and Cloe. He groaned again, not at all looking forward to spending anymore time with the scary blonde. They still had tonight to look forward to and that thought made it a whole load worse.

Sharpay trudged over to her brother. "We need to talk," she said, practically dragging him away from the others before Genevieve even had the chance to respond to him. Ethan, getting used to this sort of thing by now, flashed the brunette girl a quick apologetic smile as he stumbled to keep up with his sister.

Nessie was so excited, having been signed up to take the Elven Language/History course. The whole arrangement sounded so cool to her because now she had a class with Cloe. _'I get to share a room with a new friend. I have those!'_ she thought as she continued to eat the waffles on her plate, though human food wasn't her favorite, she was grateful to have something to put into her empty stomach, _'Wow. I am way too excited.'_ She really wanted to get to know everyone there... and – she glanced around curiously – why was that guy staring at her before?

Looking up at Nessie, Cloe pouted, wanting more than anything to leave the noisy room, which was making her headache ten times worse. "Nessie," she whined, "Do we really have to stay here? Can't we go do something fun? It's the start of the weekend anyway. Why not explore?" She noticed how Mason had looked at the half-vampire and how Nessie had looked back. "You can even talk to Mason," she told her friend innocently, thinking maybe she had an excuse to figure out that boy's secret and possibly see if he missed his iPod while doing something nice for her new friend, though she still felt a little garbagey, "I'll introduce you to him."

Nessie blushed, her face turning a brilliant shade of red. Cloe couldn't have noticed she was looking at that guy, too, could she? Well, obviously she had. _'His name is so cool. Mason... I like it!'_ she thought to herself, feeling herself start to heat up even more. She looked down at the floor. "Ok, sure." She figured she must have been so red in the face by now.

'_WHAT IS SHE DOING? MASS MURDERER AND MY DAUGHTER DO NOT MIX! NO!'_ Edward silently began to panic slightly, going over his options as he tried his best to blend in with the large mass of students. He knew he had to say something to her. _"Nessie, don't. He's dangerous. Don't go talk to him,"_ he tried to talk as quietly as he could. Nessie called it his 'vampire voice'.

'_Ugh!'_ Nessie sighed in frustration, _'That stupid voice!'_ She didn't know if it was her conscience or what, and she didn't particularly care. She got to go talk to Mason, which totally topped any of the events that had happened so far.

"Follow me," Cloe instructed as she slowly pulled herself to her feet and headed off in the direction she'd seen Mason leave in, Nessie following her all too willingly. It wasn't that she particularly cared for the boy at all; he still wasn't normal. _'Then again, I'm not exactly normal,'_ Cloe added in contemplation. Mason just didn't seem good normal; he was more of suspicious not normal.

~~~~~~ "What's the matter?" Ethan asked his sister, still irritated at how she always did this to him one way or another, "I was having a conversation with Genevieve."

"I don't care... I have an urgent problem," Sharpay said, stomping her foot.

"What did you leave at home this time?" Ethan asked, getting ready to use his personal witch's glass from his pocket, "I can call mom and have her send it, but just please make it quick." He had just wrapped his fingers around the silver glass when he noticed the distressed expression on his sister's face.

"No, Ryan. It's Mason. He just keeps blowing me off," she wailed dramatically. She was too upset; she didn't even try to annoy him by calling him by his real name.

Ethan sighed, wanting more than anything to get this over with and talk with Genevieve about classes or something. Removing his hand from his robe pocket, he crossed his arms over his chest slightly. "Did you think that maybe he doesn't like you?" he asked her in a flat tone, tired of this constant complaining from her when something didn't go right.

"But what's not to like?" Sharpay retorted, unable to think of anything she'd done wrong.

"Well, maybe not all guys like the type of girl who gets all bossy and hits them," Ethan suggested, remembering how she'd hit him the other day in front of everyone like that.

"I don't hit guys, Ryan… only you." Sharpay rolled her eyes at him. He obviously should have known that. It wasn't like she went around beating people up for the fun of it.

"Because there's _totally_ a difference," Ethan answered sarcastically, "Maybe if you were a little bit less... out there for once, guys wouldn't be so intimidated by you... and maybe they'd want to talk to you instead of run away." He wasn't trying to be mean, just honest; though somehow he had a feeling Sharpay wouldn't see it that way.

"_Ugh,_ thanks a lot, _Ryan_," she scoffed and turned away from him to storm off in the other direction, but before she could take two steps, Ethan grabbed onto her arm and pulled her back.

"Well, you asked for my honest opinion," he told her, trying to give her a hug, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to hurt you." The one thing he couldn't stand was being on his own again. Without his sister there, he'd have to watch out for people like Mason and Cloe by himself. And besides… he hated it when she was upset with him.

"I can never get any guy, Ryan," Sharpay complained, trying to hold back the tears that were welling up in her eyes.

Ethan held her closer to him in comfort and surprisingly found himself sympathizing with her. "Well, I'm sure there's somebody out there who isn't afraid of a girl who's not afraid to be outspoken," he did his best to console her. There had to be _someone_. And besides… She had her _whole life_ to find them – she was only eleven after all.

"Yeah, like who?" she asked, trying to pull out of his grip. She was positive this kind of contact could be interpreted differently to other people and the last thing she wanted them to think was that she was weak. If anyone saw her like this, her image could be permanently ruined.

Ethan finally let her go, noticing how uncomfortable she was. "I don't know," he admitted quietly, "I was kind of hoping you would."

"Hoping I would what?" Sharpay questioned, not understanding what her brother was trying to say.

"I was hoping you would know of somebody who liked you enough that they weren't afraid of you because right now, I'm blanking," Ethan explained, trying his best not to sound rude or insulting. Was it just him or was she intentionally not listening to him?

"Yeah, well… my only hope was Mason," Sharpay sighed deeply, "Every time I like somebody, they don't give two shots about me." She crossed her arms, trying not to let any tears fall.

'_Sharpay does not cry,' _she repeated to herself.

"I tried," Ethan sighed in defeat, "Maybe you'll find somebody here who you like who won't run away from you. Because, personally, once a guy really gets to know you, I think they'd like you very much. It's just that your attitude sometimes makes them want to run away because you're so intimidating and they never give you the chance to get to know you." That was one of the reasons he hadn't given up on her yet. There was no way she was completely hardened like their father. She couldn't be.

"You really think so?" Sharpay asked, feeling the slightest bit of hope returning.

"Of course. I know so." Ethan nodded truthfully. "It just takes that one daring guy who's willing to take the challenge."

"I thought… Oh, never mind." She decided it was best not to bring up the subject again.

"You thought what?" he asked her, not sure if he'd said something wrong again.

"I thought, ya know, you didn't think I was that great of a person, yourself," she told him, having a feeling she'd made the conversation a lot more awkward.

~~~~~~ Meanwhile, Genevieve sat alone at the table, reading one of her textbooks. After finishing the chapter she was on, she checked her watch and noticed classes would begin soon. She knew she should probably head out to find where the classes were being held. The other day at the feast, Dumbledore had made it clear they would be held outside, but the grounds were so big she didn't know where to start. Collecting her books, she got up and left. As she neared the doors, she noticed the twins were still outside the Hall talking.

"Um, sorry to interrupt," she said sweetly, "but classes are starting soon. I think it would be best if we started packing up and going." The two blondes stared at her for a moment, falling silent.

'_I guess I picked the wrong time to interrupt their conversation,' _Genevieve thought to herself nervously.

"Can't you see were in the middle of something?" Sharpay demanded before her brother had the chance to say anything.

"I-I'm sorry," the brunette stuttered, "I just wanted to let you know that you two should start going to your next class."

"Well, we know what we're doing." Sharpay glared at the girl.

Genevieve looked back and forth between the siblings, her brown eyes reflecting what she could only imagine was terror. "Alright, sorry," she said again, not wanting to imagine what might happen if the girl got any angrier, "I guess I'll see you both in class, then." Turning, she quickly walked down the hallway off to find her archery class even though it didn't start until after lunch.

'_Phew, I definitely don't want to make her angry,'_ she noted to herself, making sure to watch out for the brown-eyed blonde.

"That's better," Sharpay stated, satisfied with the way she'd handled that. Shaking her head slightly, she turned back to Ethan so they could finish their conversation.

Ethan looked back at his sister once again, shaking his head in disapproval. From the look in Genevieve's eyes, it had seemed the small girl had thought Sharpay would eat her unless she ran away as fast as possible. He just hoped he'd be able to explain the situation to her later.

"I always knew you weren't as bad as Dad," he answered Sharpay's original question quietly so no one else would hear, "In fact, I always looked for the better side of you and... it's definitely there. You should try showing it a bit more." He'd have to talk to her later about treating his friends properly, though.

"Really? How do you know?" Sharpay quizzed hopefully.

Ethan looked at her strangely. "How do I know you have a good side? Or how do I know you're not like Dad?" he asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Either, both," she decided, curious as to what his answer would be.

"Well, I know you have a good side because you're nice when you want to be. And I know you're not like Dad because..." he told her, lowering his voice so no one would hear the next part, "you've never tried to take over all of Halloweentown and the mortal world. You've never done anything even remotely similar to that. But I still think that if you were a bit less outspoken sometimes, people might notice you the way you want them to instead of running away all the time."

"I'm beginning to doubt it," Sharpay sighed.

"Why? What do you mean?" Ethan questioned.

"Haven't you noticed all the guys I seem to like don't want anything to do with me?" she said, wondering why things like this always happened to her. Some might call her over-dramatic and others might say she was boy crazy, but Ethan had a feeling that there was something else to it… maybe… he hoped.

"Yeah..." Ethan replied quietly, "So?" He'd noticed a few people looking over in their direction every time they walked into a room. Some of them even held whispered conversations afterwards, which always made him suspicious as to whether or not they recognized them.

"_So,_ I'm beginning to think nobody will ever like me," Sharpay said, looking away from him. She hadn't even managed to make a single friend here or back home.

"Don't say that," Ethan told her, trying to look her in the eyes, "You know that's not true. There's probably someone out there who likes you and is afraid to admit it." Though, by saying that, he knew that meant he'd have to go find someone to prove his point.

"_Yeah, right_," Sharpay shook her head, crossing her arms, "You're the only one who will talk to me."

"Well, we're new here and nobody really knows you yet," Ethan assured her, though it wasn't like his sister had given all that many people the chance to approach her what with all her attention being focused on Mason, "There has to be someone who you haven't noticed yet."

"Not just here, Ryan…" Sharpay snapped, staring straight into his blue eyes, though she could tell he saw her frustration, "It happens _everywhere_."

Ethan rolled his eyes. The complaints never seemed to end and now he was positive she was overreacting. "Well, then maybe you should stop acting like you don't care about what people think of you and start being... maybe a bit less straightforward," he suggested, seeing the intensity of her glare, "You can be a bit pushy when you want something." If that didn't get her to see the light, then he had no idea what would.

"Ryan, I act this way for a reason... You know that. And what's wrong with the way I act anyway?" she demanded. Sometimes, he could be such a… There was no word for how frustrating he could get. Ethan just heaved a heavy sigh and fidgeted as he tried to come up with an answer. "Fine, but I'm not going to go down without a fight," she told him, referring to her initial problem with Mason, "I'll just have to sign up for Elven Languages as well." With that, she left her brother in the hallway and went back to the Great Hall to sign up.

Ethan didn't argue when she walked away from him, knowing full well it wasn't smart to talk back to her when she was in one of her moods. Instead, he just shook his head and turned around to find Genevieve, when some girl bumped into him.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going," she apologized sweetly, clutching her books to her chest like they were her babies. The blonde girl looked up at him and noticed the boy looked similar to her, but didn't think much of it

Ethan looked back at her and cocked his head to the side very strangely. "Sharpay?" he stated more to himself in confusion. The girl looked just like her, except maybe the shade of brown in her eyes was a bit lighter, though that could have just been the light. _'Didn't Shar just go in the other direction? How had she...?' _he wondered before remembering they were at Hogwarts, _'Oh, right... Magic._ Duh_.'_

The girl looked up over her books. "Sorry, what?" She made a face, obviously confused at what he'd just said. "Did you just call me a dog?" She laughed slightly, figuring he couldn't possibly know who she was.

"No, that's your name," Ethan told her, figuring this was some kind of joke because she was still mad at him, "_Ha. Ha. Very funny._ Now, quit playing around."

The girl raised an eyebrow, hugging her books closer to her chest. "I'm sorry. Who are you?"

"Stop playing games, Shar," Ethan told her out of frustration, "I get it; you're mad at me, but you know very well who I am, who you are, and for the last time, we have to get to class."

"I don't know who you are and that's where I was heading until I bumped into you," the girl explained, trying to figure out what was going on.

'_This is getting ridiculous,'_ Ethan thought to himself, letting out a frustrated breath.

"Okay, Shar... fine... I'll leave you alone and let you go back to your class," he sighed in exasperation and turned away from her, but she grabbed his hand.

"Wait," she told him as a thought suddenly began to worry her, "How do you know my name?"

Ethan turned back to look at her funny. _'Why is she doing this to me?'_ he asked himself, wondering if this was just one of her many ways to embarrass him.

"Okay, I'll play along with this little game," he caved, "Hi, I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you." Rolling his eyes at her, he hoped she'd get how ridiculous the whole thing was.

She stifled a laugh. "A game?" Shrugging, she held her hand out to him, "I'm Sharpay; born in New Mexico, raised in New York."

Ethan forced a big smile, wondering why she was still playing along. Then again, the Sharpay he knew was never the first one to cave. "Great, now that we know each other, I'm going to try to find a quiet place to rest before class," he informed her, wondering why she was so insistent on doing this to him. He started to walk away before quickly turning back to her.

"Nice to meet you," was his sarcastic reply accompanied by an exaggerated low bow, "Have a nice day." Turning quickly on his heals, he rolled his eyes before retreating to the first place he could find that didn't have anything to do with his apparently bipolar sister.

The girl smiled _'At least I know someone around here,' _she thought gratefully to herself. The blonde boy was kind of weird, but she still found him to be quite nice. She headed down the hallways, still not knowing her way around.

"Um, excuse me? Can you tell me where Archery Class is please?" she asked the first person she saw, a sweet smile gracing her kind features.

**(A/N) Dun dun _duuuuuun_! =P So… what do you think so far? We're all so creative, right? Seriously, there's a plot bunny here. Does anyone know what's happening with the whole Sharpay matter that seems to be confusing Ethan so much? XD**

**Random plot bunny! **

***makes a bunny head with hand and has it jump around like how you would for bunny shadow puppets***

**Leave reviews and we shall get the matter explained soon. Hopefully, we'll get to the climax of the story before the chappie count hits 40. XD**

**No worries. We're not that far along in the rp/story yet. So, we're more of just over 10 chappies worth of rp. I'm still working on getting everything copied down. So, yesh. More soon for those who review. L8rs everyone!**

**Make my year pwease. College is leaving too much stress on me and the world is soooo not helping. Darn school. That's my major excuse for why I didn't update sooner… the rest of it is because I think we'll have to redo most of the roleplay in order to fill in the blanks and continue the story coherently… O_o**

**Interesting shtuffs comin up soon! REVIEWS!**

**Thanks to Jen for the reviews she's given me. The main reason I'm still posting! My #1 reviewer!**

***applauds for her awesomeness***

**_Posted:_ 10/30/11  
**


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